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imdon, John Murray, Albemarle Street, J850. 



THE 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



COMPILED FROM 



AUTHENTIC SOURCES, AND PARTICULARLY FROM 
HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 



By THOMAS H. DYER. 



WITH A PORTRAIT. 



LONDON: 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, 
1850. 



• 13 S 



LONDON : 

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 



V 



PREFACE. 



« 

The following narrative is founded, as much as 
possible, on Calvin's correspondence ; and, wherever it 
was practicable, he has been left to speak for himself. 
Where that could not be done, recourse has been chiefly 
had to Euchat's elaborate History of the Reformation 
in Switzerland, * and to Dr. Paul Henry's recently pub- 
lished biography of Calvin, f Considerable informa- 
tion has also been gathered from the Lives of Farel 
and Beza, from the pens of Kirchhofer and Schlosser ; 
and, for the nature of Calvin's intercourse with 
Servetus, and other Antitrinitarians, from Mosheim's 
very ample account of Servetus in the sfecond volume of 
his " Ketzer-Gescliichte" and from Trechsel's work, 

* Histoire de la Reformation de la Suisse, nouvelle Ed., 7 vols., 8vo, 
Nyon, 1835—1838. 

t Das Leben J. Cahins des grossen Reformators, 3 b., 8vo, Hamburg, 
1835—1844. 

b 



vi 



PREFACE. 



" Die Antitrinitarier." In the last are given the minutes 
of Servetus's trial at Geneva, from a copy in the 
Archives of Berne ; and as these differ only in the 
orthography from the account recently published by 
M. Rilliet, from the original documents/' 5 " the author 
has less reason to regret that he was unable to procure 
the latter work. In order to verify as much as possible 
the facts stated in the course of the narrative, the 
extracts from the Registers, or Council Book of Geneva, 
published by M. Grenus, in his "Fmgmens Historiques" 
and " Biographiques" have also been consulted. 

Before the publication of Dr. Henry's Life of 
Calvin, no adequate biography of him can be said 
to have existed ; but that work presents materials 
abundantly sufficient to satisfy the most minute inquirer 
into the actions and opinions of the Genevese Reformer. 
Its appearance in an English dress, from the pen of 
Dr. Stebbing, might seem to supersede the necessity for 
another work on the same subject, and, had that 
gentleman's book been published earlier, the present 
one would probably have never been undertaken ; but 
the greater part of it was written, and a considerable 
portion already in the hands of the publisher, before 
Dr. Stebbing's translation was announced. 

* See P. Henry, Leben Calvins, iii., Beii. 3. 



PREFACE. vii 

There were circumstances, moreover, which did not 
discourage the author from proceeding. Without entering 
into any minute criticism of Dr. Stebbing's version, it 
may at least be said that it does not place the original 
work fully and fairly before the English public ; the 
greater part of the notes, and nearly all the appendices, 
which form together about a third part of it, being 
omitted. These contain letters and other documents 
which do not always bear out the statements in the 
text. The original work itself, too, seemed liable to 
some objections. The author is far from charging 
Dr. Henry with any intentional want of candour ; for 
which quality, on the contrary, considering that he 
is so ardent an admirer of Calvin's character, he is 
remarkable : but the bias of a probably unconscious 
prejudice has evidently led him now and then to keep 
some circumstances in the background, and to represent 
others in a light not entirely in accordance with the 
evidence. The form of his work, too, did not seem well 
adapted to the taste of an English reader; a remark 
which may, perhaps, be justified by the fact, that 
Dr. Henry himself has thought it necessary to apologise 
for its diffuseness and want of connexion.** 

As the nature and extent of Calvin's intercourse with 

* See the Prefaces to his second and third volumes. 



Vlll 



PKEFACE. 



the Anglican church, and with the Marian exiles, cannot 
but be of interest to an English reader, considerable 
attention has been devoted to this part of the subject ; 
on which the author ventures to hope that more 
information will be found than is contained in Dr. 
Henry's work, or in any other biography of Calvin. 

London, 

Jvm 20th, 1849. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Introduction — Calvin's birth and childhood — His education — Conversion 
to Protestantism — State of Religion in France — The Sorbonne — Alarm 
inspired by the Reformation — Persecutions — Margaret de Valois — 
The Reuchlinists and Erasmus — Calvin's first essays as a Reformer — 
Flight from Paris — Returns to meet Servetus — The Placards — Calvin 
flies to Basle — First edition of the u Institutes " — Visits Ferrara — His 
arrival at Geneva 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Some account of Geneva — Farel's arrival there — Sketch of Farel's life — 
His labours at Geneva and expulsion from that city — Froment 
succeeds him — Disturbances — Return of the bishop — Guy Furbity — 
Dissolution of the monasteries — Reformation established — Genevese 
constitution — Calvin joins Farel— Disputation of Lausanne — Anabap- 
tists — Caroli — Accuses Calvin of Arianism — Caroli's banishment and 
apostasy — Calvin and Farel's orthodoxy suspected — Their scheme of 
discipline — Manners of the Genevese — They revolt against the 
discipline — French intrigues — Synod of Lausanne — Inflexibility of 
Farel and Calvin — Their banishment from Geneva— They appeal to 
the Synod of Zurich — Berne intercedes for them . . . .39 



CHAPTER III. 
Calvin proceeds to Basle — Accepts a ministry at Strasburgh — Writes to 
the church of Geneva — Attends a diet at Frankfort — His pecuniary 
difficulties — His marriage — Literary labours at Strasburgh — Caroli 
again — Diets of Hagenau and Worms — Diet of Ratisb on— State of 
parties at Geneva — The new pastors despised- Disorders — Negotia- 
tions for Calvin's restoration — He reluctantly returns to Geneva . 90 



X 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 

Calvin visits Neufchatel — His reception at Geneva — State of the church 
there — Farel invited — Calvin's ecclesiastical polity — Church and 
State — The Consistory — Service of the church — Presbyterianism — 
Calvin's idea of the priesthood — Method of upholding it — Practical 
discipline — His scheme not perfected — Calvin's civil legislation — 
Rigour of his laws 124 



CHAPTER V. 

Plague and famine at Geneva — Calvin answers the Sorbonne — Replies to 
Pighius — Melancthon's opinions on Free Will — Calvin's Tract on 
Relics — Farel at Metz — Caroli's machinations — Sebastian Castellio — 
Calvin's Tract " De Reformanda Ecclesia " — His remarks on the 
Pope's Letter to the Emperor — Tracts against the Anabaptists and 
Libertines — The Queen of Navarre offended — Luther and the Swiss 
Church — Calvin's opinion of Luther — Luther's violence — Calvin's 
Tracts against the Nicodemites 154 



CHAPTER VI. 

Another pestilence — Conspiracy to spread the plague — Persecution of the 
Waldenses — The Libertines, or Patriots — Number and privileges 
of the Refugees — Case of Pierre Ameaux — Calvin's despotism — 
Priestcraft — Struggles with the Libertines — Ami Perrin — Calvin 
menaced — Affair of Gruet — Perrin imprisoned — Disturbances — 
Perrin disgraced — Attempts at accommodation — Calvin embroiled 
with the Council — Perrin restored and elected syndic . . .191 



CHAPTER VII. 
Work against the Council of Trent — Tract against judicial astrology— 
The Interim — Melancthon's concessions — Calvin blames Melancthon 
— Death of Calvin's wife — Beza's arrival at Geneva — The Zurich 
Consensus — Laelius Socinus — Fetes abolished at Geneva — Calvin's 
Tract De Sccmdalis 228 



CHAPTER VIII. 

St. Augustin and Pelagius— Predestination— Case of Bolsec— Calvin's 
account of his tenets — Bolsec indicted — The Swiss churches 
consulted — Bolsec's life in danger — Bullinger's advice to Calvin — 
Letter of the Bernese ministers — M. de Fallais patronises Bolsec — 
Calvin's Tract on Predestination— Calvin and the English Church — 
Affair of Dr. Hooper — Cranmer's principles and projects of union — 
Calvin's letter to him — Misconceives Cranmer's situation . . 256 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Account of Servetus — His book against the Trinity — His medical 
studies — Settles at Vienne — His correspondence with Calvin — 
Broken off by the latter— Publishes his "Restoration of Chris- 
tianity" — Is denounced by Trie, and apprehended at Vienne — 
Calvin furnishes evidence against him — Further proceedings — 
Examination at Vienne — Escapes from prison, and is burnt in 
effigy 296 

CHAPTER X. 

Servetus arrives at Geneva — Is arrested and indicted — His trial — Is 
claimed by the French authorities — His insolence — Opinions of 
Bullinger, Farel, and others, on his case — Brings a counter-accusation 
against Calvin — The Swiss churches consulted — Their replies — 
Servetus condemned and executed — His character — General indig- 
nation against Calvin — Calvin's book on the punishment of heretics — 
Grounds of his defence — Justified by Melancthon and others — Calvin 
and the French inquisition — Inquiry into his motives — His defence 
unsatisfactory — Replies to his book 326 



CHAPTER XI. 

Affair of Berthelier — Calvin refuses to administer the Lord's Supper — 
Question of excommunication — Truce with the Libertines — Libel 
upon Calvin — His unpopularity — Disputes with the Bernese clergy — 
Calvin visits Berne — Banishment of Bolsec — Further struggles with 
the Libertines — The Consistory's power of excommunication con- 
firmed — Question of citizenship — Riots — The Libertines discomfited — 
Sentence upon them 368 



CHAPTER XII. 
Controversy with the Lutherans — Attacks of Westphal — Calvin answers 
him — Calvin's violence — Urges Melancthon to declare himself — 
Mission of Farel and Beza — Their disingenuousness — Bullinger 
offended — The Marian exiles — " Troubles of Frankfort " — Lutheran 
persecutions — Calvin visits Frankfort — Return of the Marian exiles 401 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Revival of the predestinarian controversy — Calvin's treatment of Castellio 
— Italian Antitrinitarians— Gribaldo — Biandrata — Alciati — Gentile — 
Schools founded at Geneva — Dissensions in the Pays de Vaud — Viret 
and others banished — Farel's intemperate zeal — Viret, Beza, and 
others, repair to Geneva — Farel's marriage — Calvin's illness — His 
intercourse with England— Correspondence with Knox . . . 440 



xii 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

PAGK 

State of Religion in France — Persecution of the Protestants — Conspiracy 
of Amboise — Progress of Calvinism in France — Danger and escape 
of Conde — Demand for Genevese preachers — The Triumvirate — 
Conference of Poissy — The Queen favours the Hugonots — They 
preach in public — Edict of January — Apostasy of King Anthony — 
Massacre of Vassy — Beza remonstrates — Religious wars — Battle of 
Dreux — Assassination of Guise — Peace of Orleans .... 473 



CHAPTER XV. 
Controversy with Baudouin — Tract against De Saconay — Answer to 
Hesshus — Calvin's last illness — Interview with the council — Exhorta- 
tion to the ministers — His death — Will — Beza's character of Calvin 
— Another estimate — His literary merits — Conclusion and Appendix 511 



LIFE 

OF 

JOHN CALVIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction — Calvin's birth and childhood — His education — Conversion 
to Protestantism — State of Religion in France — The Sorbonne — Alarm 
inspired by the Reformation — Persecutions — Margaret de Valois — 
The Reuchlinists and Erasmus — Calvin's first essays as a Reformer — 
Flight from Paris — Returns to meet Servetus — The Placards — Calvin flies 
to Basle — First edition of the " Institutes " — Visits Ferrara — His arrival 
at Geneva. 

The great and manifold blessings attending the Reforma- 
tion were not unalloyed with serious evils, the chief of which 
were the dissensions that arose among the Reformers them- 
selves. The pretended infallibility of the Romish Church had 
at least secured unity. The right of private judgment, the 
active principle of the Reformation, was a standard that 
necessarily varied according to the temper, the understanding, 
or the knowledge of different men; and hence arose a variety 
of sects, of some of which the tenets were dangerous alike to 
civil government, and to those principles of morality and 
order which are the foundation of society. But of these un- 
wholesome products of the Reformation, some were too extra- 
vagant and fanatical, others too cold and speculative, to 
establish a durable or extensive empire over the hearts and 
understandings of mankind. The greater part of them 
either withered shortly after their birth, or obtained only a 

B 



2 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. I. 



scanty number of followers. The chief harm that followed 
from them was, that they threw discredit upon the Reforma- 
tion ; furnished the Papists with their stock argument against 
it; and produced distrust and intolerance among the Pro- 
testants themselves. 

The same principle that produced these excrescences, 
though not pushed to such extravagant results, ultimately 
divided the Protestant Church into the three main denomi- 
nations of Lutherans, Anglicans, and Calvinists. It was, 
indeed, impossible that the spirit of the Reformation should 
be bounded by the views of Luther. Notwithstanding his 
personal boldness, in matters of doctrine and discipline 
Luther was a timid and cautious innovator. Several years 
after 1517, when he first began to preach against indulgences, 
we find him still tolerating the invocation of saints, and ad- 
dressing his prayers to the Virgin Mary.* The establishment 
of his doctrine of justification seems to have been at first his 
only object. Step by step he was led to further reforms; but 
at the outset of his career, he appears to have formed no clear 
and definite notion of the extent to which he should push them ; 
and in one important article — that of the local Presence in the 
eucharist — though he slightly modified the Romish doctrine, 
he never, as is well known, entirely departed from it. 

Before Luther began his career, another Reformer had 
already started up in Switzerland, possessing bolder views, 
and a more philosophical method. Zwingli began by laying 
down the abstract general principle that the Scriptures con- 
tain the sole rule of faith and practice, and that whatsoever 
is not found in them is either false or superfluous. When his 
auditors were become familiar with this doctrine, it was easy for 
him to proceed to its legitimate cod sequences, and to prove the 
fallacy of the mass, of the invocation of saints, of the worship 
of images, and of the other countless abuses of Popery.f 

* Gerdesius, i. 129. 
t On the different characters of Luther and Zwingli as Reformers, see 
Gryncei Ep., apud Gerdes., i. 121. 



CHAP. I.] 



INTRODUCTION. 



3 



The rejection, however, of the grand Romish dogma of the 
Real Presence was first publicly advocated by one of Luther's 
own followers. That dogma had, indeed, been questioned in 
private circles before Carlostadt began to preach against it ;* 
but Zwingli himself had not yet ventured to impugn it openly. 
Carlostadt's conference on this subject with Luther, at the 
Black Bear at Jena, only served to inflame the controversy 
between them j and the former found it expedient to retire 
to Strasburgh, and thence to Basle, where he published some 
books in defence of his opinion.f These were at first pro- 
scribed : but Zwingli, though differing with Carlostadt as to 
the sense to be affixed to the words of the institution of the 
Lord's Supper, warmly espoused his main view, advocated it 
in several treatises, and made it an article of faith in the 
church which he had founded at Zurich. Hence the Pro- 
testants were early divided into two great parties which 
regarded each other with an hostility even more bitter than 
that which they mutually bore to the Romish Church. The 
followers of Zwingli called themselves the Reformed Church 
in contradistinction to the Lutherans ; whilst the latter, as 
well as the Roman Catholics, branded the Zwinglians with 
the name of Sacramentaries. 

Out of these two Churches were developed the Anglican 
and the Calvinistic : the former, under the auspices of Cran- 
mer, at length inclining towards the tenets of Zwingli, but 
without adopting his ascetic discipline. Calvin, on the other 
hand, pushing both the doctrine and practice of Zwingli, 
though with some modifications of his own, to a rigid ex- 
treme, succeeded nevertheless in incorporating the Zwinglian 
Church with his own by the Zurich " Consensus" Finally, we 
find his system, which he had built up with much learning, 
and great power of logic, and pushed with indomitable energy, 

* Pellicanus had expressed his disbelief in Transubstantiation in a conver- 
sation with Capito, in 1512 (Gerdesius, i. 112). Indeed the doctrine had, pro- 
bably, always had some questioners. 

f Scultetus, apud V. der Hardt, p. 71. M. Adamus, Vita Carlostadii, p. 84. 

B 2 



4 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. 



prevailing not only at Geneva, and among that part of the 
French people which had embraced the Reformation, but 
also in Scotland and Holland. 

Hence, though Calvin's title to be regarded as an original 
Reformer is eclipsed, in point of priority, as well as in some 
other particulars, by those of Luther and Zwingli; yet a success 
so extensive gives to his history a claim upon our attention 
scarcely smaller than theirs. His life does not, indeed, offer 
such striking passages of personal adventure. His part was 
not acted on so large and conspicuous a theatre as Luther's 
was, nor does it present us with that boldness of action which 
distinguished Zwingli, as well as that Reformer. Calvin's 
influence flowed mainly from his literary abilities, and much 
of his biography necessarily relates to those works, the com- 
position of which occupied so great a portion of his life. The 
vicissitudes of personal fortune form, however, but a minor 
subject of contemplation in the history of those destined to 
mould the opinions and principles of men. Yet even in 
these the life of Calvin is not wholly deficient ; and if it be 
viewed with regard to the consistent and successful pursuit of 
one great object, it may, in the interest thence resulting, 
safely challenge a comparison with that of any other Reformer. 
To attempt the development of this, with all due impar- 
tiality, forms the object of the following narrative. 

John Calvin was born at Noyon, in Picardy, on the 10th 
of July, 1509. His father, Gerard Cauvin, or Caulvin, — for 
the name of Calvin was assumed from the Latin form, Calvi- 
nus, — was a notary in the ecclesiastical court of Noyon, and 
secretary to the bishop. His grandfather is said to have 
been a cooper at Pont l'Eveque, a village near that city. 
Gerard married Jeanne Le Franc, a native of Cambray, by 
whom he had six children; four sons and two daughters. 
The eldest son, Charles, was an ecclesiastic, and chaplain of 
St. Mary's church at Noyon. He died, however, under 
the suspicion of heresy, from having refused to receive the 



chap, i.] calvin's birth and childhood. 



5 



sacrament in his last moments; for which reason he was buried 
under the public gibbet : though, to avoid the scandal of 
such a scene, it was performed in the night-time. The second 
son was the great Reformer, the subject of this biography. 
The third son, Anthony, was also bred up to the clerical pro- 
fession, and obtained the chaplaincy of Tourneville, in the 
village of Traversy ; but subsequently embraced the Reformed 
tenets, and followed Calvin to Geneva. The fourth son died 
in childhood. Of the two daughters, one, Maria or Mary, 
also accompanied Calvin to Geneva ; the other appears to have 
continued in the Roman Catholic faith, and to have remained 
at Noyon ; where she married and left a son who followed 
the trade of a cutler.* 

It is a striking fact, as illustrating the rapid progress 
which the Reformation was at that time making in France, 
that three sons of the same family, all enjoying the prospect 
of a competency from benefices in the Romish Church, 
should nevertheless have deserted that communion, and 
embraced the Reformed tenets. Both their father and mother, 
however, remained unshaken, and died in the Roman Catholic 
faith. Gerard is said to have been a man of sense and pro- 
bity, and much esteemed by the higher classes. The chief 
feature in the character of Calvin's mother was a piety bor- 
dering on asceticism ; and as the maternal temperament is 
frequently observed to descend to the offspring, it was from 
her, probably, that Calvin inherited those religious feelings 
which marked even his early years. 

Of Calvin's childhood we possess but few particulars ; nor 
is this, perhaps, much to be lamented. That period of life 
may indeed supply hints for conjecture and inference as to 
the development of the future character; and some materials 
of this sort we possess in what is known of Calvin's boyhood. 
Unlike his brother Reformers of Switzerland and Germany, 
whose early years were for the most part spent in penury 

* Drelincourt, Defense de Calvin, pp. 33—36, 193, 234, &c. Beza, Vita 
Calvini. 



6 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. 



and hardships,* Calvin was brought up with tenderness and 
care. He received the first rudiments of his education at the 
College des Capettes, in his native town ; and in his studies 
he was associated with the children of the noble family of 
Mommor, the most distinguished in the district, and received 
equally with them, though at his father's expense, all those 
accessory facilities and advantages to which their rank en- 
titled them.f To this method of education it may, perhaps, 
be owing that we miss in Calvin's character that boldness 
of outline which marked most of the Swiss and German 
Reformers ; and to the same source we may also ascribe that 
aristocratic tendency perceptible in his after-life. Beza tells 
us that he surpassed all his schoolfellows in acuteness of mind 
and strength of memory ; and even then gave token of his 
future character, by setting himself up as the censor of his 
young companions. In 1523, at the age of fourteen, he pro- 
ceeded to the High School of Paris, J still accompanied by 
the children of the Mommor family. Here he studied under 
Mathurin Cordier, regent of the College de la Marche, so 
well known by the name of Corderius, and by his "Colloquies," 
still used to initiate youths in the Latin tongue. It was under 
the superintendence of this renowned master that Calvin laid 
the foundations of that pure and vigorous Latin style in which, 
even in that learned age, he excelled most of his contem- 
poraries. The relation of master and pupil was, however, 
afterwards reversed. In matters of religion Corderius did 
not disdain to take a lesson from his scholar ; and renounc- 
ing the Romish faith, settled at Geneva, where he died, the 
same year as Calvin, at the age of eighty-four. From this 
school Calvin removed to the College Montaigu, where he 
made rapid progress under the tuition of a learned Spaniard. 

* In the former country especially, parents were accustomed at that time to 
make their children depend on their own efforts for their education and main- 
tenance. See Melchior Adamus, Vita Bullingeri, p. 477, and the Autobiography 
of Thomas Platter. A hazardous experiment ! 

t Beza, Vie de Calvin, p. 10. J Drelincourt, p. 160. 



CHAP. I.J 



BIS EDUCATION. 



7 



Calvin's father had originally destined him for the Church. 
With this view he had procured for his son the chaplaincy of 
la Gesine, in the cathedral church of Noyon, before he had 
reached the age of twelve ; and, shortly after he had com- 
pleted his eighteenth year (September, 1527), he obtained 
for him the living of Marteville, though Calvin was not pro- 
perly qualified to hold it ; for, although he had received the 
tonsure, he had not been admitted into holy orders.* But the 
extraordinary abilities which he had already displayed, seemed 
to qualify him for a more active and enterprising life than 
that of an ecclesiastic. Though the profession of medicine 
offered at that time the surest resource against poverty, that 
of the law opened the brightest prospects to wealth and 
honour combined; and Calvin's father made him renounce 
the study of theology for that of jurisprudence.f This 
change did not, however, lead him to abandon the ecclesias- 
tical preferment which he had obtained, though the registers 
of Noyon contain frequent complaints of Calvin's absence 
from his duties. J On the contrary, we find him exchanging, 
in 1529, the living of Marteville for that of Pont l'Eveque, 
where he seems occasionally to have preached. These pre- 
ferments, the last of which Calvin obtained through the 
Abbot of St. Eloi, a member of the Mommor family, afford 
strong proof of the lax discipline at that time prevailing in 
the Romish Church, and of the necessity for the Reformation 
then in progress. 

In compliance with his father's wishes, Calvin repaired 
to the University of Orleans to study jurisprudence under 
Pierre de l'Etoile (Petrus Stella), afterwards president of 
the parliament of Paris, and reputed the acutest lawyer in 
France. § Beza gives us a few particulars of Calvin's way of 
life here, which he had learned from some of his fellow- 
collegians. It was characterised by the most temperate 

* Drelincourt, pp. 11, 162. Bayle, Calvin, f See Calvin's Prcefatio in Psalmos. 
% See Des May, apud Drelincourt, pp. 161, 170. § Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 9. 



6 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



{chap. I. 



habits, and the greatest devotion to learning. After a moderate 
supper he would spend half the night in study, and in the 
morning lie abed to reflect upon what he had read. It was 
thus that he acquired his vast stores of knowledge, but at 
the same time laid the foundation of those disorders which 
embittered his future life. Such was his reputation for 
learning, that, in the absence of the professors, he was fre- 
quently called upon to supply their place ; and when he left 
Orleans the degree of doctor was by unanimous consent 
offered to him without the usual fees : an honour, however, 
which Calvin declined to accept.* But one of the strongest 
proofs of the high esteem in which his abilities were held 
even at this early period is, that his judgment was requested 
on the subject of Henry the Eighth's divorce, when, in 1530, 
that question was proposed to the universities and learned 
men of Europe. Calvin took a different view of it from 
Erasmus, and pronounced against the lawfulness of marriage 
with a brother's widow. His opinion is still extant, it having 
been published in Beza's selection of his correspondence^ 

But though the study of the law was Calvin's ostensible 
pursuit at Orleans, the greater part of his time was still 
devoted to theology. He had already begun to feel an in- 
clination for the tenets of the Reformers, which he is said to 
have derived from a relative, Pierre Robert Olivetan, after- 
wards known by his French translation of the Scriptures, 
to the study of which he exhorted Calvin. J He was also 
encouraged in these sentiments by a friendship which he had 
formed with Francois Daniel, an advocate, and Nicholas du 
Chemin, a schoolmaster at Orleans, who had adopted the 
new learning. 

How long Calvin remained at Orleans cannot be ascer- 
tained. He left that city to complete his legal studies at the 
University of Bourges, the most renowned school in France 
for that branch of science, where it was taught by Andre 



* Beza, Vita Calv. t See Ep. 384, Lausanne ed. 

X Beza, Vita Calv. 



CHAP. I.] 



CONVERSION TO PROTESTANTISM. 



9 



Alciat, a famous Italian jurisconsult. * Calvin himself tells 
us that he devoted considerable attention to this study; t 
and the progress which he made in it must have proved very 
serviceable to him in after-life, when called upon to assume 
the part of law-giver in the little republic of Geneva. But 
whether it tended to improve him as a theologian may be 
doubted; and to this source, probably, may be traced that 
fondness for system and logical demonstration which cannot 
always be successfully applied to religion, and which is too 
apt to beget a spirit of bigotry and intolerance. It was at 
Bourges that he began to acquire his knowledge of Greek, 
at the instance and with the help of Melchior Wolmar, a 
learned German, then Greek professor at that university. 
Calvin has recorded his gratitude for the benefit which he 
derived from Wolmar' s instructions in the dedication to him 
of his Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. 

By Wolmar, Calvin seems also to have been confirmed in 
his inclination towards Protestantism, which now began to 
show itself openly. Calvin represents himself in his earlier 
years as a pertinacious and devoted bigot to the superstitions 
of Popery, and as having been converted by a sudden call, 
like the new birth of the Methodists. J In the course of 
this narrative there will be occasion to relate other instances 
of the unexpected intervention of Providence in Calvin's 
spiritual career. But though the final impulse which drove 
him to overleap the pale of the Romish Church may have 
been sudden and abrupt, it seems probable that, in a man of 
his studious and reflective habits, so marked a transition 
must have been some time preparing. Be this as it may, 
Calvin now began openly to preach the Reformed doctrines, 
not only at Bourges but in the neighbouring villages, and 
especially at Ligneres, where he was encouraged by the 
Seigneur and lady of the place. § We learn from his Preface 

* Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, p. 53. f Prcef. in Psalmos. 

t lb. § Hist, des Eglises Bef., i. 10. 



10 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. I. 



to the Psalms, that before a year had elapsed, all who were 
desirous of knowing the pure doctrines of the Reformation 
came to him for instruction, though himself but a beginner, 
and in spite of his shy and retiring habits, which but little 
qualified him for a public teacher. It was during his resi- 
dence at Bourges, and probably in the year 1532, that Calvin 
lost his father.* This event having made him his own master, 
he abandoned the study of the law, took up his residence at 
Paris, and devoted himself wholly to theology, with the view 
of becoming a minister. 

At this period France presented a more remarkable picture 
than any other country of the struggle between ancient 
bigotry and prejudice, and the new ideas excited by the Re- 
formation. At one time that nation seemed destined to lead 
the van of Europe against the papal power. Almost a cen- 
tury before the appearance of Luther, Gerson, one of the 
greatest ornaments of the University of Paris, had persuaded 
that body to adopt his opinion, that the Pope was subordi- 
nate to a general council. f In 1510 we find Louis XII. 
practically carrying out this decision, by assembling the 
French prelates at Tours, citing the Pope, Julius II., to ap- 
pear there, and declaring the right of making war upon him. 
In the following year, Louis, having joined the Emperor 
Maximilian, and gained over a few cardinals, appointed a 
general council to be held at Pisa, for the reformation of the 
Church both in its head and members. To defeat this, Julius, 
in 1512, assembled the Council of the Lateran, continued by 
his successor Leo X., which declared the Pope to be superior 
to a council. { In token of his unquenchable hatred towards 

* This occurrence has sometimes been placed in 1528, and there is indeed 
extant a letter of Calvin's to N. du Chemin, dated on the 6th of May in that 
year, in which he states that his father was so ill, that his recovery was impos- 
sible (P. Henry, i. 36). But Beza tells us that Calvin was about twenty-three 
when his father died, which would be in the year 1532 ; and as he calls it a 
sudden death (repentina mors), it seems probable that Gerard recovered from 
the dangerous sickness alluded to. 

f Sleidan, i. 9. % Gerdesius, iv. §§ 1,2. 



I, 




CHAP. I.] 



STATE OF RELIGION IN TRANCE. 



11 



Rome, Louis had even caused money to be coined, bearing 
the inscription, "Per dam Babylonis nomen" Had that mo- 
narch lived to see the beginning of Luther's Reformation it 
seems not improbable that religion might have experienced a 
different fate in France. The influence of the sovereign in 
determining the creed of his subjects is a fact that must have 
struck most readers of the history of those times. The com- 
mon observation respecting the impolicy of persecution, and 
its unfitness to attain its ends, is one of those which we 
rather wish to be true, than in the majority of instances can 
prove to be so. In Italy and Spain the government suc- 
ceeded in nipping the Reformation in the bud. In Germany 
the far greater part of the Emperor Charles's dominions 
retained the faith of their bigoted master. Even in Saxony 
it may be doubted whether Luther would have succeeded in 
carrying out his views without the assistance of the Elector. 
In our own country it is highly probable that there would 
have been no Reformation, or at all events not till many years 
later, if it had not originated with the monarch ; and a strong 
proof of this are the three changes, which, at the beck of 
its government, the nation made in its religion in about a 
quarter of a century. Holland and Scotland may be named 
as exceptions to this general remark; in which countries 
the people succeeded in establishing their creed by successful 
rebellions : and it is a remarkable fact that, in both instances, 
that creed was the Calvinistic. The circumstance of there 
being but little public opinion in those days, and few or no 
organs to express it, may be the most probable way of ac- 
counting for these facts. Yet the religion of the principal 
European states has remained the same as was established in 
the sixteenth century. The great tide of religious opinion 
has subsequently ceased to flow, and its inroads were con- 
fined to that epoch. France presents a striking illustration 
of the preceding observations. At first its leading men hesi- 
tated and differed on the subject of religion, and the result 



12 LIFE OF JOHtf CALVIN. [chap. r. 

was a bloody civil war. At length its kings and rulers pro- 
nounced for Romanism, which remains the established reli- 
gion to this day. 

In the early part of his reign, the conduct of Louis's suc- 
cessor, Francis I., was not calculated to damp the hopes of 
the Reformers. It may be true, as an eminent historian 
has observed, that Francis cared little for theological con- 
troversies, and that his concessions to the Reformers were 
rather the arts of policy than the results of conviction.* 
Nevertheless this indifference, and this policy, were not with- 
out their effect in assisting the Reformation : and it is cer- 
tain, at all events, that his contemporaries interpreted 
them into an inclination for the new doctrines. t His well- 
known love and patronage of literature and the arts, the hand- 
maids of the Reformation, assisted to produce the same result. 

These causes had led to the partial adoption of Lutheranism 
at the French court. It had become a fashion among the 
courtiers to patronise the new doctrines, though in general 
they understood but little about them. J Even in the Uni- 
versity of Paris a marked change had begun to show itself, 
which Louis Vives, who paid it a visit in 1521, has de- 
scribed in a letter to Erasmus. He represents the study 
of poetry as reviving there, which previously had been 
almost banished from the public schools ; and mentions that 
Paris, which had been the very citadel of the sophists, had 
begun to lay aside the scholastic philosophy; and even the 
Sorbonne itself to eschew mere verbal subtleties and quibbles, 

* Robertson, Charles the Fifth, b. vi. 

f Thus Bucer, writing to Luther so late as August, 1531, says of Francis, 
" For the king is not averse from the true religion, and, now that he has reco- 
vered his children, will not be so dependent on the Pope and the Emperor in 
this matter." — Gerdesius, iv. 73. Compare Beza, Vita Calv. 

X This appears from an answer given by the Sorbonne, in 1523, to some 
questions proposed by Louisa of Savoy, " Que plusieurs et grands personnages, 
avant que les choses fussent par eux bien entendues, ont loue en cour, comme on 
disait, icelle doctrine, et disaient mal de tous ceux qui la blamoient et 
reprouvoient." See Gerdesius, iv., Mon. 3. 



CHAP. I.] 



THE SORBONNE. 



13 



and to take to the study of solid and genuine theology .* 
But though the general body of the Parisian university 
had made these advances, it may be suspected that Yives 
had been misled by too hasty a glance with regard to the 
Sorbonne. Among that body there were, it is true, a few 
enlightened men who rose superior to the general mass, and 
it is probable that Vives formed his judgment of the whole 
from having been fortunate enough to fall into their com- 
pany. Luther himself made the same mistake. Relying 
on the liberality of that body from their having, in 1517, 
reasserted the superiority of councils over the Pope, Luther 
ventured, in the very year that Vives wrote his letter, to 
appeal to the Sorbonne on the subject of his dispute with 
Dr. Eck at Leipsig. They answered him by selecting a 
variety of passages from his own works, which they severely 
censured ; and by animadverting upon his presumption, as if 
he alone knew the road to salvation : an impious arrogance 
which they held worthier to be coerced by reproof, by im- 
prisonment, and even by the flames, than to be refuted by 
argument.f And indeed if the accounts which we have of 
this celebrated body may be relied on, the former of these 
two courses was much the safer one for them to pursue. We 
are told that when Luther first appeared there was not a 
man among them who dared to meet him in scriptural dis- 
cussion. J Even a lapse of nearly thirty years did not mend 
matters. Early in 1545 it was proposed that some of the 
German Reformers should go to Paris to discuss theology 
with the French doctors. The king assented ; but his libra- 
rian, Castellan, put a veto on the project, by informing his 
master that the Parisian theologers were no match for those 
of Germany ; and advised him not to expose the whole king- 
dom to ridicule, by betraying their ignorance. § 

* The answer of Erasmus, Ep. 611, gives a rapid sketch of the state of 
learning throughout Europe. 

f Gerdesius, iv. 6. Their censure of Luther will be found in Mon. 2. J lb., i. 30. 
§ " Though this advice pleased the king, Castellan refused to trust the French 



14 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. 



Sleidan has left us a picture of the Parisian theologians of 
this period, taken from the life. They claimed, we are told, 
to be the leading theologers of Europe, and had two principal 
colleges ; the Sorbonne, and that of Navarre. The students 
in this faculty, called baccalaurei, or bachelors, were exercised 
in disputation throughout the summer ; and, at their exami- 
nation, were bound to answer the arguments of all comers 
for twelve consecutive hours. Wonderful were the feats of 
intellectual gladiatorship here displayed ; which, however, 
for the most part turned either on frivolous points, or on 
questions beyond the reach of the human understanding. 
These disputes were conducted amid the greatest clamour ; 
and were commonly terminated by the audience testifying, 
by their hootings, their impatience at the want of skill, or at 
the prolixity, of one or other of the disputants. During the 
progress of these discussions, the doctors in theology listened 
through the lattices. These men, who were honoured with 
the title of nos maitres (magistri nostri), were the recognised 
censors of theological literature, over which they ruled with 
despotic power. Without their sanction nobody could pub- 
lish a treatise relating to divinity. The greater part of them, 
however, abandoned themselves to idleness; and seemed to 
aspire to the degree of doctor only, that they might live in 
luxury, and domineer over others. Among them were indeed 
a few men of excellent genius ; but worthy of other associates 
and a better culture.* 

The instinct of self-preservation stimulates bigots to oppose 
even the most harmless reforms. Incapable from their con- 
tracted views of estimating the results of the slightest innova- 
tion, and alarmed at a progress which they are alike unable 

theologians in a disputation with you, unless they were well prepared and in- 
structed beforehand. For, said he, you were men well exercised in that sort of 
contention, and could not be so easily overthrown ; and, therefore, care should 
be taken, that the king might not expose the whole nation to ridicule by betray- 
ing the ignorance of his divines." — Calvin to Melancthon, January, 1545, 
Ep. 60. * Sleidan, Be Statu, &c, p. 39. 



chap, i.] ALAKM INSPIRED BY THE REFORMATION. 1 5 



to comprehend or to arrest, they cling to ancient prejudices 
with all the tenacity of despair. Amid the blaze of learning 
which illuminated the sixteenth century, we find recorded 
against the doctors of the Sorbonne, instances of the grossest 
ignorance, and of the most childish and obstinate prejudices. 
Freigius, in his Life of Ramus, asserts that some of the 
Parisian doctors were so pertinacious in maintaining that ego 
amat was as good Latin as ego amo, that it was necessary to 
put them down by a public decree. And so late as 1550, the 
Sorbonne were so indignant at a richly beneficed ecclesiastic 
for adopting the reformed pronunciation of Latin, as quisquis, 
quamquam, mihi, &c, for the old method, kiskis, kankam, mild, 
that they would have stripped him of his preferment, had not 
the royal professors, by whom these reforms were introduced, 
actively interfered in his behalf with the parliament of Paris.* 
Such facts would almost appear incredible, were they not 
supported by other instances. In our own country, we find 
Bishop Gardiner identifying a point in philology with a 
question of religion, and persecuting Cheke and the other 
reformers of Greek pronunciation. 

The alarm of the Sorbonnists and monks at the rapid 
diffusion of the doctrines of the Reformation was extreme. In 
1521, a Carmelite preaching before the King of France pre- 
dicted the speedy appearance of Anti-Christ, and affirmed 
that four of his precursors had already appeared : a certain 
Minorite in Italy ; Le Fevre d'Etaples in France ; Reuchlin 
in Germany; and Erasmus in Brabant.f It was even re- 
ported that the Romish clergy employed poison against the 
Lutherans, and thus silenced for ever those whom they were 
unable to refute. Erasmus believed this so thoroughly, that 
the more Aleander, who had a reputation in that art, pressed 
him to dine with him at Cologne, the more he excused 
himself. J At the head of the bigots of the Sorbonne, two 

* Bayle, art. Ramus, rem. G. ; and Rdbelais,i\. 7. f Erasmus, Ep. 314, App. 
X " Poison, I hear, is the method now. Some open defenders of Luther have 



16 LIFE OF JOHN CALVHST. [chap. r. 

men stood conspicuously forward ; Quercu, a Norman, and 
Natalis Bedda, or Beda. In Bed a alone, said Erasmus, are 
3000 monks * 

It was in 1521, as we have seen, that the Sorbonne first 
openly showed their dislike of Luther's doctrines by pub- 
lishing a condemnation of them ; and shortly afterwards they 
entered the lists against him by printing a book called 
"Anti-Luther." They soon, however, abandoned the field of 
argument for the more congenial method of persecution, 
which in 1523 broke out with open violence. In that year, 
Jean Le Clerc, who may be considered as the proto-martyr of 
France, was arrested for having affixed to the cathedral of 
Meaux a paper condemning the Popish system of pardons. 
He was whipped and branded ; but this did not deter him 
from planting a church at Metz, which in 1524 he watered 
with his blood. t In the following year one Jaques Pavanes 
was burnt on the Place de Greve at Paris. But what struck 
most terror into the Reformers was the execution of Louis 
Berquin, a gentleman of Artois. Berquin had translated 
some of the pieces of Erasmus into French ; as the " Praise of 
Marriage," the " Christian Soldier's Manual," and the " Com- 
plaint of Peace." Beda, who corresponded occasionally with 
Erasmus, sent him word that these translations would hurt 
his character. Erasmus replied, that he was not responsible 
for the versions of others ; but at the same time he wrote to 
Berquin, advising him to abstain from contests with the 
divines, which the heat of religious controversy rendered 
unsafe. J The life of Berquin had been already twice in danger, 
in 1523 and 1524 ; on which occasions Francis had saved him 

been made away with at Paris. Perhaps it has been commanded that, since the 
enemies of the papal throne — for such is the designation of those who will not 
unreservedly obey those harpies — cannot be otherwise overcome, they should, 
with the blessing of the pontiff, be carried off by poison. Aleander is strong 
in this art. He pressed me very much at Cologne to come and dine with him, 
but the more he pressed, the more I refused." — Erasmus, Ep. 317, App. 
* Ep. 941. f Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 6. J Jortin, Erasmus,\. 374, et seq. 



CHAP. I.J 



PERSECUTIONS. 



17 



at the intercession of his sister Margaret. After the return 
of that monarch from his captivity at Madrid, persecution 
grew warmer ; and in 1527 Berquin was again arrested on the 
charge of having mutilated a statue of the Virgin which stood 
in one of the streets of Paris. Twelve commissaries were 
selected from the parliament to try him, amongst whom was 
Bude, who earnestly endeavoured to get him to recant. With 
a view to save him, the trial was protracted for eighteen 
months ; but, as he would not retract, he was at length con- 
demned to make the amende honorable at Notre Dame, with 
a rope round his neck, and a torch in his hand ; to have his 
works burnt, and his tongue pierced with a red hot iron, and 
to be imprisoned for life. Berquin, who probably considered 
death a preferable alternative, refused to make the amende, 
and was burnt, with his writings, in the Place de Greve, 
April 22nd, 1529. The first article of his impeachment was, 
that he had recommended translations of the Scriptures, 
which had been forbidden by the parliament of Paris. 
Erasmus describes him as by no means addicted to Lutheran 
tenets : and attributes his death to his hatred of certain stupid 
and ferocious monks and theologers, which he was impru- 
dent enough not to conceal. He died with the greatest con- 
stancy, and attempted to address the crowd ; but his voice 
was drowned by the clamour of six hundred guards.* The 
erection of Lutheranism into a distinct and recognised system 
of faith by the " Confession of Augsburg," increased the jea- 
lousy and vigilance of the Sorbonne. All who held reformed 
tenets, though they might not precisely accord with that Con- 
fession, were regarded as Lutherans, and called by that name. 

Athwart these dark scenes of bigotry and persecution, 
Francis's sister, Margaret de Valois, afterwards Queen of 
Navarre, beamed like an angel of light sent to mitigate their 
gloom and horror. Margaret's character was a curiously 

* Erasmus, Ep. 1060. Petitot, Mem., xvii. 98. Genin, Lettres de Mar- 
guerite, i., Notice, p. 48. 



18 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CKAP. I. 



compounded one. Plato's divine and earthly love never met 
more conspicuously in a human being.* The feelings inspired 
by the former found expression in her " Miroir de VAme 
pecheresse : " to the latter she dedicated her " Heptameron," 
the more than equivocal tales of which are all said to have 
been founded on real occurrences. Whether the mind can 
dwell upon such incidents, and even commit them to paper, 
without contamination, we shall leave to casuists. 

" Crede niihi, distant mores a carmine nostri ; 
Vita verecunda est, Musa jocosa mihi — " 

is an excuse as old at least as Ovid, and which a poet of the 
same period as Margaret, and of more pretensions to sanctity 
than she, even Beza himself, found it convenient to allege. 
Great allowance must be made for the grossness of the 
age, as well as for literary fashion. Boccaccio's " Decame- 
rone 33 had just been translated into French, of which the 
" Heptameron" is a professed imitation. f Brantome was the 
first to attack the reputation of the Queen of Navarre, 
which seems not to have been impeached during her life; 
and the character of her writings, as well as her poetical 
coquetry with Clement Marot, her valet de chambre, doubtless 
lent a colour to the attacks of that filthy old scandal-monger. 
Margaret's preface to her tales — a strange portico to such a 
building — would lead us to suppose that she herself thought 
no harm in them. There, under the name of Dame Oisille, 
she describes her religious exercises : how she reads the Bible 
the first thing after getting up, and then recites some psalms; 
how she retires before supper to feed her soul with study and 
meditation ; and how in the evening she recalls the events of 

* M. Ge'nin, the recent editor of Margaret's correspondence, observes : tt Le 
trait saillant du charactere de Marguerite c'est d'avoir allie' toute sa vie les 
idees religieuses et les idees d'amour mondain." — Vol. i., p. 72. 

+ After all we find nothing in the " H&ptameron " similar to " La Ruelle mal 
assortie " of a subsequent Margaret de Valois, the authoress of the " Memoirs," 
a tale which at once places her character beyond doubt. 



chapNj margabet db valois. 19 

each, day, Asking pardon for faults, and giving thanks for 
mercies. Is this THeTanguage of the shameless and aban- 
doned ? No ; let us rather think that her true woman's heart 
was as pure as it was kind. 

With such a temperament we are not, however, surprised 
to find that Margaret was under the dominion of a spiritual 
mysticism. Of this she made no secret; nay, she rather 
seems to have been flattered by allusions to it : for Rabelais 
adverts to it, in some lines, themselves sufficiently mystical, in 
which he dedicates to her the third book of the " Adventures 
of Pantagruel."* This spirit led her in after-life to patronise 
some of the leaders of the sect of spiritual libertines, for 
which Calvin, as there will be occasion to relate in the course 
of this narrative, fouud occasion to reprove her. Hence, also, 
sprang her correspondence with Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux, 
who, like herself, was a great patron of the Reformers. 

Briconnet was the son of the cardinal of that name. He 
enjoyed the confidence of Louis XII. and Francis I. ; had 
twice filled the office of extraordinary ambassador to Rome ; 
and had been the representative of France at the Councils of 
Pisa and the Lateran. He had been abbot of St. Germain 
des Pres, where he had distinguished himself by reforming 
abuses, and by making great additions to the library : for he 
was fond of literature, himself an author, and a liberal patron 
of learned men. When the new doctrines began to make a 
sensation in France, Briconnet, who had been raised to the 
bishopric of Meaux, manifested some inclination towards 
them, and invited into his diocese several leaders of the 
Reformed party ; as Farel, then regent of the college of 
Cardinal le Moine, Le Fevre d'Etaples, Vatable, Martial and 
Gerard Ruffi (or Le Roux), and others.f Some writers assert 

* " Esprit abstrait, ravy, et ecstatic, 
Q,ui frequentant les cieux ton origine 
A delaisse ton hoste et domestic," &c. 
f See Farel's Letter to Scepper in 1524 (Gerdesius, iv. 51). 

c 2 



20 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. I. 



that Briconnet's object was to reconcile these schismatics with 
the Church of Rome ; but, if so, he was very unfortunate in the 
prosecution of it ; for he incurred so strong a suspicion of 
heresy, that he was obliged to clear himself by dismissing his 
Reforming friends, and by pronouncing a condemnation of 
Luther in a synod held expressly for the purpose in 1523. 
It was in that year that he had begun his correspondence 
with Margaret, then Duchess of Alencon, and which displays 
a mysticism bordering on extravagance and folly.* In his 
letters to Margaret, Briconnet, though many years her 
senior, signs himself her unworthy son; and Margaret, on 
her part, assumes the tone and authority of a spiritual 
mother. 

In 1525 we find her corresponding with Count Hohenloe, 
dean of the grand chapter of Strasburgh, who endeavoured 
to bring her over to Lutheranism; but this correspondence 
Margaret broke off after the return of her brother from his 
captivity at Madrid. f After her marriage in 1527 with Henri 
cVAlbret, King of Navarre — for the Duke of Alencon had died 
of grief and vexation at the reproaches heaped upon him for 
his conduct at Pavia — she retired with her husband into 
Bearn, where her court became the refuge of the persecuted 
Protestants; amongst whom we find Le Fevre d'Etaples, 
Gerard Le Roux, and, for a short time, Calvin himself. It 
was the shelter which she gave to men like these that chiefly 
tended to draw down upon Margaret that suspicion of heresy 
which other parts of her conduct were not calculated to avert. 
At her table at Nerac, when surrounded by her ecclesiastics 
and officers of state, it was her custom to discuss some text 
of Scripture; and, by way of amusement, little satirical 
dramas of her own composition were represented, in which 

* M. Ge'niu thus characterises his letters : " C'est un debordenient de metaphores 
dont la vulgarite tombe a chaque instant dans le burlesque ; c'est un galimatias 
perpetuel, absurde, qui parfois touche a la folie." — Lettres de Marg., i. 124, note, 
t lb., Notice, p. 16. 



V 

chap, i.] MARGARET DE VALOTS. 21 

the Pope and his satellites were not spared.* In the 
visits which she frequently made to Paris she used 
her influence with Francis in favour of the Reformers ; and 
in this she was assisted by the Duchess d'Etampes, 
the king's mistress. One day, in the year 1533, they 
took him to hear Le Coq, the cure of St. Eustache, who, 
though outwardly a Catholic, taught Zwinglian doctrines, 
especially with regard to the eucharist, which he made 
the subject of his discourse on this occasion. Le Coq had 
even a private audience of the king, and almost succeeded 
in shaking his faith; but the matter having reached the 
ears of the Cardinals of Lorraine and Tournon, they obliged 
the adventurous ecclesiastic to make a public recantation in 
the pulpit. f 

After all it seems doubtful whether Margaret ever really 
quitted the Roman Catholic communion \ and at all events 
she appears to have finished her eccentric religious career by 
returning to its bosom. After the death of Francis, in 1547, 
she retired to a convent in Angoumois, where she officiated 
as abbess, and chanted vespers with the nuns ; and on her 
death-bed, after receiving extreme unction from the hands of 
Gilles Cailleau, a Cordelier, she is said to have protested that 
all she had ever done in favour of the Reformers was out of 
pure compassion, and not from any wish to depart from the 
religion of her forefathers. J 

Margaret's love of literature was, doubtless, one of the 
^ chief causes which induced her to sympathise with the 
Reformers. The learning of the age lay almost exclusively 
on their side. A literary quarrel between Reuchlin and the 
monks of Cologne proved of the greatest service to the cause 
of the Reformation. The inveterate malice with which the 

* Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, p. 21. Lett res de Marg., i., Notice, p. 70. 
There are, however, no such pieces now extant among her writings, but only 
religious mysteries, diversified with Bergeries, or Pastorals. Ib., p. 120. 
f Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, p. 24. 
X Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, ii. 18. Petitot, xvii. 183. 



22 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYHST. 



[chap. r. 



latter persecuted Reuchlin * drove all the lovers of true 
learning to form a confederacy in his favour ; and after the 
appearance of Luther the greater portion of them joined his 
standard. The efforts of this constellation of wits were 
directed to ridicule the ignorance of the monks, especially 
their barbarous Latinity : and it is to them that we owe the 
" Epistolm obscurorum Virorum" a satire conducted with 
considerable humour, and which so annoyed the monks of 
Cologne that they are said to have given a large sum to 
Leo X. for a bull consigning it to the flames. f 

One of the most distinguished of the Reuchlinists was 
Erasmus. The character of that Reformer, if so he can be 
called, is well known. Had all the rest resembled him there 
had been no Reformation. It seems to be a rule of human 
action, that no great change can be effected in any very 
corrupt system of civil or religious government without 
proceeding to extremes in the opposite direction ; and that 
the more grinding and oppressive has been a tyranny the 
more violent and uncontrollable will be the revolution which 
upsets it. As in the natural so in the moral atmosphere, 
the stagnant vapours must be cleared away by storms and 
lightnings. Erasmus, by his own confession, wanted the 
courage of a martyr in an age when nothing could be effected 
but by the spirit of martyrdom. At this distance of time 
there may be many inclined to think that the reforms which 
he proposed, with some few additions, would have sufficed 
to meet the exigencies of the case : % the suggestions of 

* Hochstraten, prior of the Dominicans of Cologne, spent three years at 
Rome in endeavouring to get Reuchlin condemned, but without success (Sleidan, 
ii. 25. Gerdesius, i. 14 1). In the dedication of his "Destructio Cdbalce," published in 
1519, Hochstraten pointed out that Capnio's affair (Capnio is a Greek version of 
Reuchlin's name) was closely connected with Luther's Reformation (Mayerhoff, 
Reuchlin, u. s. Zeit., p. 234). The progress of the latter, by means of Reuchlin, 
Erasmus, and Luther, was depicted with truth and humour in a little pantomime 
acted before Charles V. during the diet at Augsburg. See J ortin, Erasmus, i. 
514 ; and Gerdesius, ii., Mon. 7. + Amcenitates Lit., ix. 

X He has summed these up in his (t Spongia adversus Adspergines Hivtteni" 



1 1 

CHAP. I.] THE 



REUCHLINISTS AND ERASMUS. 23 



reason and moderation are seldom of a nature to rouse that 
enthusiasm without which no great changes can be effected ; 
and by the more ardent Reformers Erasmus was regarded, 
either with hatred or suspicion, as a temporiser. Luther 
compared him to Moses, who had, indeed, led the Israelites 
out of Egypt, but who was himself doomed to perish in the 
desert. " I wish," rejoined Erasmus, " that he may prove 
a Joshua, and conduct us all into the land of promise." * 
But before that could be effected the world was destined to 
witness many scenes of violence, fanaticism, and bloodshed, 
enacted under the sacred name of religion ; and though we 
have made some approach towards that happy region, it may 
even be doubted whether we are quite arrived there yet. 

But, in spite of this moderation, the exertions of Erasmus 
did much to prepare the way for bolder and more ardent 
spirits, by exposing the abuses of the existing system, and 
inspiring men's minds with a desire of change. The mode- 
rate views of reform developed in his writings, enforced as 
they were by the keen sarcasm of his wit, and by the elegant 
terseness of his style, proved highly attractive at a time when 
the character of the clergy had begun to create an almost 
universal feeling of contempt and disgust. This was parti- 
cularly the case among the highest and more educated portion 
of society in France; amongst whom the brilliance and 
piquancy of Erasmus's writings rendered him an especial 
favourite. His popularity in that country may be judged of 
by the fact, that in 1527 a bookseller at Paris ventured to 
reprint 24,000 copies of his " Colloquies." They are said to 
have found a rapid sale, which was perhaps assisted by the 
book's having been prohibited. t Thus unconsciously, and 
perhaps unwillingly, he helped to prepare Calvin's path in 
France; who, as already related, had gone to Paris in 1532 



* Erasmus Zuinglio, apud Gerdes., i. 151. 

f Petitot, xvii.j Introd.,\). 96. Knight, quoted by Jortin, Erasmus,!. 300. 



9A 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAF. I. 



to begin his career as a Reformer, and to whom we must now 
return. 

Calvin seems at this time to have indulged the ambitious 
view of becoming the head of the Reformed party in France, 
and of converting the court and the metropolis. The circum- 
stances of the times were well adapted to stimulate an ardent 
mind. Enough success had been achieved to justify the most 
sanguine hopes of the ultimate triumph of the Reformation ; 
enough danger existed to render the pursuit of it a work of 
no ordinary difficulty and hazard. Calvin was constantly 
employed in gaining converts, and in confirming those already 
made. During his residence at Paris at this period, he was 
much patronised by a merchant named Estienne de la Forge, 
whom he mentions in the fourth chapter of his tract against 
the Libertines, as having suffered martyrdom for his religious 
principles.* At this time the heat of persecution obliged the 
evangelical congregations to assemble in the greatest secresy. 
To these Calvin preached with zeal and energy, concluding 
always with the words of St. Paul, " If Grod be for us, who 
can be against us ?"f In order to shame the king and the 
ecclesiastical authorities out of their persecuting principles, 
he published his first work, the two books of Seneca " De 
dementia" with a Commentary, in which he freely expressed 
his opinions. In this work, the dedication of which to the 
abbot of St. Eloi is dated from Paris on the 4th of April, 
1532, he first assumed the name of Calvinus. The senten- 
tious morality of Seneca made him a favourite author with 
Calvin ; but it has been remarked that he has committed the 
blunder of confounding the two Senecas together, and thus 
making the philosopher die at the age of 115. From two of 
Calvin's letters to his friend Daniel, it appears that this work 
was printed at his own risk ; and he expresses some anxiety, 

* Beza, Vie de Calvin, p. 15, Geneve, 1663. 
f P. Henry, Leben Calvins, i. 49. 



chap, i.] calvin's first essays as a reformer. 25 



not only with regard to the reception it may meet with, but 
also for the reimbursement of his expenses.* 

Calvin, however, was not endowed with the masculine and 
indomitable courage of Luther, and was more inclined to 
propagate his doctrines by stealth, and at a safe distance, 
than to risk his life in maintaining them. Thus, though he 
was continually exhorting others to behave like martyrs, he 
was himself always disposed to fly at the first appearance of 
danger. His first great public essay at Paris was made in 
the person of another. According to custom, Nicholas Cop, 
the newly-elected rector of the Sorbonne, was to deliver a 
sermon on the festival cf All Saints. f Though thus raised 
to the very pinnacle of orthodoxy, Cop had imbibed the 
tenets of the Reformation, and accepted Calvin's offer to 
compose his sermon. Great was the astonishment of the doc- 
tors of the Sorbonne, when, instead of upholding, as usual, the 
tenets of the Romish Church, Cop insisted on the doctrine of 
justification by faith alone, and referred to the gospel as the 
sole standard of religious truth ! The attack was too auda- 
cious to be overlooked. Cop was denounced to the parlia- 
ment of Paris, who sent their officers to apprehend him. A 
timely notice from a friend enabled him to escape to Basle, 
his native town. The storm now fell upon Calvin, whose 
share in the sermon seems to have got wind. Jean Morin, 
the lieutenant of police, repaired to his lodgings for the 
purpose of seizing him ; but Calvin had also received a pri- 
vate warning, and saved himself by flight. The manner of his 
escape is differently narrated. According to some writers, J 
he let himself down from his window by means of his sheets 
into the Rue des Bernardins, whence, having gained the 
Fauxbourg St. Victor, he sought the house of a vine-dresser, 
whom he knew; and, putting on the man's frock, with a 

* MS. Bern., quoted by P. Henry, Leben Calvins, i. 51. 
t Maimbourg, p. 57, and the author of the Egl. Ref. f call Cop rector of the 
university. J Masson, Maimbourg, Drelincourt. 



26 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. I. 



wallet of white cloth, and a hoe upon his shoulders, took the 
road to Noyon. These romantic details are not found in 
the narrative of Beza,* who tells us that Calvin was saved by 
the interposition of the Queen of Navarre, who sent for him 
to the palace, where he was honourably received. His letters 
and papers fell into the hands of the police, and thus the 
safety of several of his friends was seriously compromised. 

At Noyon, Calvin remained only long enough to dispose 
of his benefices. He sold his chaplaincy, and resigned the 
living of Pont PEveque in favour of a cousin, whose morals, 
though a priest, seem to have been anything but pure.f 
Calvin was now compelled to lead a wandering life; a cir- 
cumstance, by the way, which hardly agrees with Beza's 
account of the termination of the affair of the sermon. He 
first went into Xaintonge, where he must have spent some 
little time, if, as is reported, he drew up some short sermons 
for the use of the neighbouring clergy, calculated to dispose 
the minds of their flocks for the reception of the new doc- 
trines. The friend mentioned by Beza as encouraging him 
in this design, and who afterwards fled with him into 
Switzerland, was Louis du Tillet, brother of the registrar of 
the parliament at Paris, and of the Bishop of Meaux. 
From Xaintonge Calvin went to Nerac, the residence of the 

* Bayle (art. Calvin, rem. C.) observes : " Si ce narre etait veritable Beze 
serait un mauvais historien ; car il dit simplement que par hazard Calvin ne se 
trouva pas dans sa chambre, quo forte domi non reperto." On which his anno- 
tator observes : " Beze emploie l'expression par hazard dans sa Vie de Calvin ; 
mais dans son Histoire Ecclesiastique il dit que les avertissemens de quelques amis 
garantirent Calvin des poursuites ; d'ou Le Clerc ne manque pas d'accorder a 
Bayle, que Beze est un mauvais historien." The fact, however, is, that Beza 
was not the author of the Histoire Ecclesiastique (or rather Hist, des Eglises 
Reformees), which passes under his name, as is manifest from some passages in it; 
for instance the following : " de Beze ne repondit rien pour lors, pourcequ'il se 
contentoit (comme depuisje luy ay ou'i dire) d'avoir repondu au principal," &c. 
— Vol. i., p. 358. It was written by Des Gallars, one of the ministers of the 
Genevese Church. See Schlosser, Leben des Th. deBeze, p. 105, note. 

f Drelincourt, p. 172. The atrocious calumny of Bolsec, that he was deprived 
of these benefices for an infamous crime, has long since been rejected by all 
candid inquirers. 



CHAP. I.] 



HIS FLIGHT FROM PARIS. 



27 



Queen of Navarre, where he met, for the first time, with 
Le Fevre d'Etaples, whose name there has been already 
occasion to mention. Le Fevre, when young, had travelled 
much in Asia and Africa, and subsequently became professor 
of philosophy at the college of Cardinal Le Moine, in Paris. 
He was a truly learned man, and had been intrusted with 
the education of Charles, Duke of Angouleme. Francis 
wished to bestow some ecclesiastical dignities upon him, 
which, however, the tricks and intrigues of the Sorbonne, 
whose anger had been excited by his translation of the New 
Testament, published in 1523, prevented him from accepting. 
In 1524 Margaret sent him and Gerard Le Roux to Stras- 
burgh, to consult with Bucer, Capito, and the other theolo- 
gians of that town, on matters of religion.* Shortly after- 
wards he introduced into the Sorbonne the ubiquitarian 
doctrine, that is, the ubiquity of the presence of Christ's body ; 
a doctrine not known before that age, and afterwards adopted 
by Luther.f For this heresy he was banished from France 
in 1525, on the accusation of Beda. In 1526 we find him 
living at Strasburgh, under a feigned name.} Subsequently 
he seems to have been appointed to the humble post of 
librarian at Blois, from which he retired to Margaret's court 
at Nerac, where he died in 1536, at the advanced age of 
ninety-one. § Le Fevre received Calvin with friendship, and 
is said to have predicted his future success in spreading the 
gospel in France. || Calvin's presence in this district seems 
to have created some sensation, for a vineyard in it is said to 
have borne his name a century and a half afterwards. 
During his residence at Claix, in the house of Louis du 
Tillet, he is supposed to have written a great part of his 
" Institutes," published a few years afterwards at Strasburgh.^f 

* Scultetus, apud V. der Hardt, Hist. Lit. Reform., v. 68. 
f lb., p. 70. Sleidan, v. 84. Basnage, Egl. Ref., ii. 336. 
t Scultetus, 1. c, p. 114. 
§ Lettres de Marg. } i. 278, note. Gerdesius, however (i. 1 72), places his birth 
in 1440. || Gerdesius, i. 175. % Bayle, 



28 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. I. 



Before the year 1533 had expired, Calvin again ventured 
to return to Paris. The persecutions were, indeed, still 
raging there; but the influence of the Queen of Navarre 
served in some measure to annul their violence. Under her 
protection, Gerard Le Boux, originally a Dominican, and 
two Augustinian monks, Bertault and Courault, the latter of 
whom subsequently became a minister at Geneva, still 
preached the doctrines of the Reformation in that city. The 
hatred which Margaret's conduct excited against her amongst 
the clergy, is exemplified by an anecdote related by Calvin in 
a letter to his friend Daniel. On the 1st of October, 1533, 
in the play annually produced at the college of Navarre, 
Margaret was represented on the stage as receiving the 
gospel from the hands of the fury Megsera, and subsequently 
conducting herself in a way that might well have been sug- 
gested by such a messenger of hell.* Beda and the Sorbonne 
had previously denounced her " Miroir de VAme pecheresse" 
Because she had not mentioned purgatory, and the interces- 
sion of saints, it was inferred that she did not believe in 
them; but this evidence was merely negative, and Margaret, 
defended by Petit, Bishop of Senlis, escaped the denunciation 
of Beda. Margaret complained to her brother of these 
attacks, who, when politics did not stand in the way, was 
disposed to show her every mark of affection. The pedants 
of the college of Navarre escaped only through the generous 
intercession of Margaret herself. Beda discovered too late 
that he had flown at too high a quarry, and expiated his 
rashness by dying a prisoner at Mont St. Michel. 

In 1534 Calvin received a challenge from the arch-heretic 
Servetus, to meet him in disputation ; and, according to Beza, 
this had been the motive of Calvin's journey to Paris. Many 
years afterwards they were destined to meet under extra- 
ordinary circumstances ; but, on this occasion, Servetus 
failed to keep the appointment, for fear, it is said, of Calvin's 

* Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. i. 



chap, i.] RETURNS TO MEET SERVETUS. 



29 



superior abilities ; though a dread of the Sorbonne may be 
a more probable cause. In the same year Calvin published 
at Orleans his treatise entitled " Psychopannychia" It was 
directed against a notion said to be of Arabian origin, and 
revived by the Anabaptists, that the soul, upon quitting the 
body, falls into a sleep till the day of judgment. Erasmus 
seems at one time to have entertained this opinion.* Calvin 
also published a Latin version of this treatise at Paris. 

About this period, the indiscreet zeal of some of the friends 
of the Reformation inflicted irreparable damage on that 
cause in Trance, and gave occasion to a redoubled violence 
of persecution. Towards the close of 1534, one Feret, a 
servant of the king's apothecary, caused a quantity of pla- 
cards to be printed at Neufchatel, with the intention of post- 
ing them up in the streets and public places of Paris. Farel, 
the former rector of the college of Cardinal Le Moine, is 
said to have been concerned in drawing up these productions, 
which consisted of violent invectives against the mass and 
the Pope.t These intemperate manifestos, which were 
highly disapproved of by all moderate men of the Protestant 
party, were placarded in the night of the 18th of October, 
in different parts of the metropolis ; some being affixed to 
the Louvre itself, and even to the door of the king's cham- 
ber. Francis was highly incensed at this audacity, and 

* Jortin,i.l22. It was also once held by Sir T. Browne. See Rel. Medici, Pt. i. § 7. 

f Crespin, Livre des Martyrs, apud P. Henry, i. 74. They will be found in 
Gerdesius, iv., Mon. 11, and in P. Henry, i., Beil. 4. The following are speci- 
mens : " Or ne peuvent ils faire entendre a mil de sain entendement que Jesus 
Christ, les Apotres, et les prophetes, soyent menteurs ; mais faut malgre' leurs 
dents que le Pape et toute sa vermin e de Cardinaux, d'Eveques, de pretres, de 
moines, et autres caphars, diseurs de messe, et tous ceux qui y consentent soyent 
tels : assavoir, faux prophetes, damnables trompeurs, apostats, loups, faux 
pasteurs, idolatres seducteurs, menteurs, blasphemateurs, execrables, meurtriers 
des ames, renonceurs de Jesus Christ, larrons et ravisseurs de I'honneur de 
Dieu, et plus detestables que les diables." Again, after a tirade against tran- 
substantiation : u Allumez done vos fagots pom' vous brusler et rostir vous- 
memes, et non pas nous, pour ce que nous ne voulons pas croire a vos idoles, a 
vos Dieux nouveaux, a vous nouveaux Christs, qui se laissent manger aux betes, 
et a vous pareillement qui estes pires que betes," &c. 



30 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. I. 



seized the occasion it presented to vindicate his orthodoxy 
from the suspicion which his connexion with Henry VIII. , 
and his opposition to the Emperor Charles V., the champion 
of the Catholic Church, had engendered. In order to purify 
the city from the defilement it had suffered, he directed a 
solemn lustration to be made on the 29th of January follow- 
ing. The image of St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, 
whose assistance is resorted to only in cases of the greatest 
emergency, was paraded through the streets in solemn pro- 
cession by the company of butchers, to whom, by an ancient 
custom, that right belonged.* Jean du Bellay, the Bishop 
of Paris, carried the host under a magnificent dais, sup- 
ported by the dauphin, the Dukes of Orleans and Angou- 
leme, and the Duke of Vendome, first prince of the blood. 
The king followed immediately after, bare-headed, on foot, 
and carrying a white taper in his hand. After him came the 
rest of the princes ; the great officers of state, cardinals, 
bishops, ambassadors and others, walking two and two 
abreast in profound silence, and with lighted flambeaux. 
The monks and clergy of Paris, the council, the parliament 
in their red robes, the public officers according to their de- 
grees, swelled the ranks of the procession, whose course was 
from the Louvre to Notre Dame, where a solemn mass was 
performed. After this act of humiliation, Francis dined in the 
great hall of the Eveche, where the chief of those who had 
taken part in the procession were assembled. In the pre- 
sence of this august meeting, Francis delivered an animated 
and passionate speech, in which he declared that if he sus- 
pected one of his own members to be infected with these 
new heresies, he would not scruple to cut it off; nor to offer 
up, with his own hand, as a sacrifice to divine justice, any of 
his children who might have imbibed them. The pomp of 
this superstitious pageant was eclipsed by the horror of the 
scene reserved for the close of the day. Six wretches, 



* Sleidan, ix. 148. 



chap, i.] THE PLACAEDS. 31 

convicted of Lutheranism, were condemned by a decree of 
the parliament to be burnt in a slow fire. They were sus- 
pended by a rope to a machine, by which they were several 
times let down into the flames, and again drawn up, till at 
length the executioner cut the rope, and precipitated them 
into the fire. The more educated among them had their 
tongues slit, lest they should infect the people with their 
doctrines. Altogether, four-and-twenty perished in Paris in 
this manner. The Germans residing there were particularly 
the objects of suspicion.* 

This unfortunate occurrence did great damage to the cause 
of the Reformers. Some fled, others were imprisoned; 
amongst the latter Gerard Le Roux. Here was an opportu- 
nity for the beneficent offices of Margaret, which she did not 
neglect. A letter of hers to Montmorency is still extant, in 
which she pleads for Le Roux's life ; and asserts not only his 
orthodoxy but her own.f Her mediation was successful, and 
Le Roux, on his liberation from prison, retired to her court 
at Nerac. Here Margaret made him her spiritual director, 
obtained for him the abbey of Clairac, and subsequently the 
bishopric of Oleron. But, though he preached at her 
court in a lay habit, and is said to have maintained, like 
Calvin, a mystical presence in the eucharist, he never openly 
separated from the Romish communion. Indeed, after this 
peril, he not only thought it advisable to adopt an out- 
ward compliance with it himself, but persuaded Margaret 
to do the like, on the ground that mere outward rites are 
things indifferent. In this their example was followed by 
many of the higher classes ; and thus arose a large body of 

* Sleidan, ix. 145. Latomus to Erasmus, Ep. 1283. Egl. Kef., i. 13. 

+ "L'on est a cet instant a parfaire le proces de maitre Gerard ou j'espere 
que, la fin bien cogneue, le Roy trouvera quil est digne de mieulx que du feu, 
et qu'il n'a jamais tenu opinion pour le meriter, ny quy sente nulle chose 
heretique. II y a cinque ans que je le cognois, et croyes que si j'eusse veu 
une chose douteuse, je n'eusse point voulu souffrir si longuement une telle poison, 
ny y employer mes amis." — Lettres de Margioerite, i. 299. 



32 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. I. 



conformers ; who excused themselves by pleading the example 
of Nieodemus. Against these Calvin subsequently wrote two 
tracts, as there will be occasion to narrate further on. Le 
Roux's life, however, was irreproachable. He was diligent in 
preaching and in instructing the young, and a kind bene- 
factor to the poor. He was publicly assassinated at Mau- 
leon in 1550, during a sermon which he was delivering 
against the observance of the saints'-days. A fanatic, named 
Arnould de Maytie, cut away the props of the pulpit with a 
hatchet, and the consequences of the fall were fatal. The 
son of the assassin is said to have been rewarded with the 
bishopric thus vacated.* 

Notwithstanding this unfortunate occurrence Francis 
still showed symptoms of a wish to accommodate the differ- 
ences in religion, through the mediation of Melancthon. At 
the instance of Guillaume du Bellay, Seigneur de Langey, 
and probably, also, of his brother, the Bishop of Paris, he 
wrote a letter to Melancthon with his own hand, on the 28th 
of June, 1535, in which he invited him to come and confer 
with some of the doctors of the Sorbonne. Melancthon, 
it appears, did not decline the invitation, but the Duke of 
Saxony refused his permission, apparently, however, not 
much to the regret of the Reformer.f 

Among those who had made themselves conspicuous by 
their opinions in religion, and who now thought it high 
time to quit a country in which they were surrounded with 
so many dangers, were Olivetan, Caroli, Clement Marot, and 
Calvin himself, who, accompanied by his friend Du Tillet, 
set off for Basle.} Near Metz they were robbed by one of 
their servants ; but the other, fortunately, had ten crowns, 
which enabled them to prosecute their journey. At Basle a 
new life seemed to dawn upon Calvin. He became person- 

* Lettres de Marg., i. 267. Egl. Ref., p. 14. Maimbourg, Hist, du Cal- 
vinisme, p. 19. 

f M. Adamus, Vita Melancthonis, p. 336. J Drelincourt, p. 41. 



CHAP. I. | 



CALVIN FLIES TO BASLE. 



33 



ally acquainted with some of the leading German Reformers; 
as Wolfgang Capito, who, in conjunction with (Ecolampa- 
dius, had introduced the Reformation into that city, and 
under whose guidance Calvin applied himself to the study of 
Hebrew. Here, also, he found Bucer ; and the learned 
Simon Gryneeus, who was at that time lecturing both on 
classical literature and on the Scriptures. Erasmus was still 
residing at Basle ; but it is doubtful whether Calvin became 
acquainted with him. Florimond de Remond asserts, in- 
deed, that he was introduced to Erasmus by Bucer; and 
that, on seeing him, the former exclaimed, "I perceive a 
great evil springing up against the Church out of her own 
bosom."* But this account is not confirmed by any other 
writer, and Jortinf treats it with contempt as a silly story, 
of which, indeed, it has all the appearance. 

At Basle, Calvin put the finishing hand to the first edition 
of his " Institution or, " Institutes of the Christian Religion." 
This was but a slender manual in comparison with what 
the book afterwards became ; and at this time his chief 
object in publishing it was, to lay before the world a sort of 
confession of faith, in order to rescue the Reformers from the 
calumnies with which they were assailed. J The dedication 
to Francis I. has been ranked as one of the three most famous 
prefaces which the world has seen : that of Casaubon to 
Polybius, and of De Thou to his History, being the other two. 
Its tone, however, was but little fitted to convert Francis, 
which was the object proposed. In the comparison of the 
spirit of the Reformed with that of the Popish Church, a 
bitterness prevails which, however justified by facts, was not 
calculated to conciliate. Beza assumes that Francis never read 
it, which is very probable ; but his conjecture that, had he 
done so, a great blow would have been inflicted on the 
Babylonish strumpet, seems more doubtful. This dedication 

* See Maimbourg, p. 59. f Life of Erasmus, i. 555. 

% See his Preface to the Psalms. 

D 



34 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap, ft 



is dated at Basle in August, 1535 ; but no edition of that year 
is now extant. It is probable that the work first appeared in 
French ; but the oldest edition known is a Latin one, bearing 
the date of 1536, probably a translation* In 1535 Calvin 
also wrote a preface to his relative Olivetan's translation 
of the Bible, published at Neufchatel in that year. It is in 
the shape of an Epistle to all Christian princes and people, 
and forms the second letter in Beza's collection of his 
correspondence. 

When Calvin first published his " Institutes," he was only 
twenty-six ; yet it has been remarked that he never varied 
from the principles he then laid down. His views respecting 
grace and election were there, and even his doctrine of the 
eucharist, as he proposed it in the Zurich " Consensus" of 1549 ; 
though some have maintained that his earlier opinions on 
that subject inclined towards those of Luther, f But though 
this consistency with regard to doctrine is remarkable, yet, 
after the affair of Servetus, he seems to have changed his 
opinions respecting discipline and church government. 
Slender as was the first edition of this work in comparison 
with subsequent ones, yet in the latter several passages are 
omitted which spoke too strongly in favour of toleration. { 

At the end of 1535, according to Bayle, or, as Dr. Henry 
conjectures, in March, 1536, Calvin, after publishing a Latin 

* See P. Henry, Leben Calvins, i. 104, et seq. 
f Jos. Scaliger says in his "ScaligerianaSecunda ;" " It is wonderful that, though 
he wrote so much, he never made any retractations. I leave you to judge whether 
he were a great man." — P. Henry, Leben Calvins, i. 134. Compare Beza, Vita 
Calv. Dr. Lawrence has observed that Calvin's views at this time respecting 
grace and election were not quite the same as he afterwards entertained ; and 
refers in proof to his preface to Olivetan's Testament. See Bampton Lecture, 
Serm. vii., note 1. Bretschneider has also remarked that, in the first edition of 
his " Institution Calvin had not adopted the doctrine of predestination (Calvin 
et VEglise de Geneve, in the Reformations Alrnanach, p. 95, Fr. translation, 
Geneva, 1822). But the passage quoted by P. Henry (i. 114) seems decisive 
on that point : though Calvin had not yet, perhaps, developed the doctrine so 
systematically as he afterwards did. The preface to Olivetan's Testament will 
be found among Calvin's Epistles, No. 58. J See below, chap. x. 



chap. i.J HIS " INSTITUTES " VISITS FEEEAEA. 35 

version of his " Institutes/ 5 set off for Italy, with the 
purpose of visiting the court of Ferrara. Here another 
lady of the royal blood of France, Renee, the daughter of 
Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany, who in 1527 had married 
Hercules II., Duke of Ferrara, afforded protection and en- 
couragement to the persecuted Reformers. The pursuits 
of Renee were of an intellectual character, like those of 
Margaret ; from whom she is said to have derived the inclina- 
tion which she felt towards the new tenets. But ReneVs 
studies were of a severer kind than those of Margaret; 
and, besides the languages, she applied herself diligently 
to geometry, astronomy, and philosophy. She seems, too, to 
have been less under the influence of imagination than 
Margaret, and preserved to the end of her life the religious 
tenets which she had adopted only after a careful inquiry. 
At Ferrara Calvin met Madame de Soubise, who had been 
ReneVs governess, together with her daughter Anne, and 
her son Jean de Parthenai, who afterwards became one of 
the leaders of the Protestant party in France, and with whom 
Calvin kept up a correspondence. Here, too, he found 
Clement Marot, who, after the affair of the placards, had 
fled first to Bearn, and then to Ferrara, where he filled the 
post of secretary to the duchess. 

We have scarcely any particulars of Calvin's visit to Fer- 
rara. He himself used to say, that he had entered Italy only 
to leave it again. For the sake of security, Calvin adopted 
during this journey the name of M. Charles d'Espeville. 
Though, under the circumstances of the times, there may be 
nothing positively blameable in the assumption of a fictitious 
name, still the many disguises of this sort which Calvin put 
on must be regarded as forming a trait in his character 
which strongly contrasts with the bold and open conduct of 
Luther. It is ascertained that he adopted at least seven 
different pseudonyms. The second edition of his " Institution 
was published at Strasburgh in 1539, under the anagram of 

d 2 



36 LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. [chap. i. ' 

Alcuin.* In his tract against Baudouin, lie acknowledges 
that he had called himself Lucanius, which Baudouin con- 
verted into Lncianus. Besides the name of D'Espeville 
assumed in this journey, he called himself Deperean or 
Deparcan, when he fled from Paris. Other names which he 
adopted at different times, are Carolus Passelius, Joseph 
Calphurnius, and J. de Bonneville. The last is subscribed 
to a French manuscript letter, written in June, 1553. f 

Notwithstanding his disguise it is asserted by some 
writers that the officers of the Inquisition had discovered 
Calvin's presence at Ferrara, and that he was obliged to fly 
from their pursuit. J Dr. Henry conjectures that he may 
probably have been driven from Italy by the treaty entered 
into by the Duke of Ferrara with the Pope and emperor in 
1536, by a secret article of which the duke bound himself to 
banish all the French from his court. § Beza, however, in 
his "Life of Calvin/-' alludes to neither of these causes. His 
words would rather seem to imply that Calvin voluntarily 
returned to France, for the purpose of arranging his domestic 
affairs. || His eldest brother Charles died in 1536,1 who being 
a priest, and consequently unmarried, the paternal inheritance 
devolved on Calvin. This seems to have been the event 
which recalled him to his native town, which he now visited 
for the last time. After selling his estate and putting his 
affairs in order he quitted Noyon for ever, accompanied 
by his brother Anthony, his sister Maria, and a few other 
friends. 

Calvin's intention was to proceed either to Basle or Stras- 

* Bayle is wrong in questioning this fact. 
+ P. Henry, Leben Calvins, i., Beil. 3. There is a book by Liebe on the 
subject of Calvin's pseudonyms, entitled "Diatribe de Pseudonymid C'alvini" 
Amst. 1723. J See Maimbourg, p. 62. § Leben Calvins, i. 155. 

|| " Caeterum ex Italia, in cujus fines se ingressum esse dicere solebat ut inde 
exiret, in Galliam regressus, rebus suis omnibus ibi compositis," &c. Yet there is 
a little discrepancy in Beza's French life, in which he makes Calvin return to 
Basle after leaving Italy (Vie de Calvin, p. 20, Geneve, 1663). 

H Des May, apud Drelincourt, p. 234. 



CHAP. I.] 



HIS ARKIVAL AT GENEVA. 



37 



burgh ; but the Emperor Charles V. having penetrated with 
his army into France, the way through Lorraine was closed, 
and he was forced to take a circuitous road through Savoy 
and Geneva ; a circumstance which decided the whole colour 
of his future life. He arrived at Geneva late in the summer 
of 1536, and took up his lodging at the house of Yiret, one 
of the ministers of that city, with the intention of stopping 
only a single night. His presence was discovered either by 
Du Tillet, or Caroli, by whom it was communicated to 
Farel.* The latter had in some degree succeeded in estab- 
lishing the Reformation at Geneva; but it was still in a 
weak and tottering state, and assailed by virulent and power- 
ful enemies. The zeal, almost amounting to fanaticism, which 
characterised Farel, though well calculated to make a sudden 
conquest of men's minds, lacked that prudence and discre- 
tion necessary to conciliate and retain them. Calvin's repu- 
tation as a theologian was now pretty well established ; 
and Farel, who felt, and always candidly acknowledged, 
his superior abilities and learning, upon hearing of his 
arrival immediately desired to secure his services. He there- 
fore called upon the traveller, and endeavoured to persuade 
him to remain at Geneva. Calvin at first excused himself, 
alleging that he did not wish to accept a public office, and 
had determined to devote his life to retirement and study. 
Finding persuasion of no avail Farel assumed the air and 
prerogatives of an apostle ; and with that manner and voice 
which had often inspired thousands with awe, threatened 
Calvin with God's curse upon all his undertakings if he 
refused his aid in so pressing a conjuncture. Calvin was so 
alarmed and shaken by this denunciation, that he abandoned 

* Calvin (Prcef. in Psalmos) points to the person as one who had afterwards 
returned to Romanism. According to Maimbourg (p. 59), Du Tillet, while 
residing with Calvin at Basle, had been reconverted by his brother, the registrar, 
and induced to return to Paris. But it was most probably Caroli who discovered 
Calvin's arrival. See Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, i. 198. 



38 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. 



his projected journey, as if, he says, God had laid his hand 
upon him out of heaven.* But though he consented to 
remain, he would not bind himself to accept any definite 
charge. 

Such was the fortuitous origin of Calvin's connexion with 
Geneva, which was destined to have such important results. 



* Preface to the Psalms. 



CHAP. II.] 



SOME ACCOUNT OF GENEVA. 



39 



CHAPTER II. 

Some account of Geneva — Farel's arrival there — Sketch of Farel's life — His 
labours at Geneva and expulsion from that city — Froment succeeds him — 
Disturbances — Return of the bishop — Guy Furbity — Dissolution of the 
monasteries — Reformation established — Genevese constitution — Calvin joins 
Farel — Disputation of Lausanne — Anabaptists — Caroli — Accuses Calvin of 
Arianism — Caroli's banishment and apostasy — Calvin and Farel's orthodoxy 
suspected — Their scheme of discipline — Manners of the Genevese — They 
revolt against the discipline — French intrigues — Synod of Lausanne — 
Inflexibility of Farel and Calvin — Their banishment from Geneva — They 
appeal to the Synod of Zurich — Berne intercedes for them. 

In order that the reader may understand Calvin's position 
at Geneva, it will be necessary to explain the state of parties 
there, and the progress which the Reformation had made at 
the time of his arrival. 

Geneva, though nominally a fief of the German empire, 
had in reality been governed for several centuries by a bishop,* 
whose temporal authority was, however, controlled by certain 
lay assessors, as well as by the citizens, without whose con- 
sent, in general assembly, he could do nothing.f The bishop 
acknowledged the Count of Geneva, or rather of the Gene- 
vois, as his feudal lord; and an officer called the Yidomne 
(vice-dominus) administered the law in the bishop's name, 
but as the representative of the count. The house of Savoy, 
having acquired the rights of the Counts of Geneva by the 
cession of Odon de Villars in 1401, endeavoured also to get 

* In an assembly of the burgesses in 1420, it was stated that the city had 
then been for more than four centuries under episcopal government. Spoil, 
i. 171. + Bonnivard, apud Ruchat, i. 319. Gerdesius, ii. 364. 



40 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



possession of the temporal rights of the bishop. No serious 
attempts, however, appear to have been made on the inde- 
pendence of Geneva, till the time of Charles III., who, in 
1504, succeeded to the just Duke Philibert. Charles found 
a willing tool in Bishop John, a natural son of Francis of 
Savoy. This prelate ceded all his temporal rights to the 
Duke of Savoy ; but the general assembly having annulled 
his proceeding, a bitter and bloody persecution ensued. The 
city was divided into two factions; that of the Mamelukes, 
which espoused the pretensions of Savoy; and that of the 
patriots, distinguished by the name of Eidgenossen. In order 
to shelter themselves from the aggressions of the duke, who 
frequently sought to attain his object by force of arms, the 
Genevese concluded a treaty of alliance and fellow-citizenship 
with Friburgh; to which, in 1526, they added another with 
Berne. In the latter of these cities the Reformation had 
already been established through the exertions of Berthold 
Haller, who began to preach there in 1522 ;* and it was this 
connexion with Berne which laid the foundation of the Refor- 
mation at Geneva. But before giving an account of its 
progress there, it will be better to anticipate a little, and 
shortly to relate the issue of the struggle with the house of 
Savoy. 

Charles continuing to annoy Geneva, Berne and Friburgh 
took the field in 1530, in defence of their ally. The duke 
was compelled to sue for a peace, the articles of which, how- 
ever, he contrived to evade. A few years afterwards the 
progress of the Reformation among the Genevese not only 
deprived them of the alliance of Friburgh, but increased the 
displeasure of Charles; and in 1535 the abolition of Popery 
at Geneva, and formal suppression of the bishopric, roused him 
to still more vigorous attacks. For some time the Genevese 
had to bear the brunt of war unaided ; but early in 1536 



* Scultetus, apud V. der Hardt, p. 49. 



CHAP. II.] 



SOME ACCOUNT OF GENEVA. 



41 



Berne sent an army of 7000 men to their assistance, which 
over-ran the Pays de Vaud, and in eleven days appeared 
before the gates of Geneva. The Savoyards fled without 
striking a blow ; but the success of the victors was much 
facilitated by the circumstance of France having, at the very 
same time, declared war against Savoy. Francis I. had eagerly 
laid hold on the hesitation of Charles to allow the French 
troops to pass through his dominions as a pretext — which he 
had been long seeking — for making war upon him. In two 
months the duke was completely stripped of his dominions, 
which he never regained, but died in exile in 1553 ;* and thus 
Geneva was finally delivered from all apprehensions from that 
quarter. 

The profligate and tyrannical conduct of Peter de laBeaume, 
who, in 1522, had succeeded to John of Savoy in the see of 
Geneva, contributed to dispose the Genevese towards the 
Reformation. At first, indeed, that prelate seemed to favour 
the patriot party; and when, in 1527, he found it expedient 
to retire from Geneva, in order to avoid the anger of the 
Duke of Savoy, whom he had offended by pardoning some 
criminals,t he formally ceded his civil jurisdiction to the 
magistrates of Geneva. In his exile, however, he reconciled 
himself with the Duke of Savoy, endeavoured to recall the 
cession he had made of his temporal rights, and early in 1528 
even caused a revocation of it to be fixed on the church doors : 
but this impotent attempt only excited the ridicule of the 
Genevese. In the same year, the Mameluke party having 
persuaded the Archbishop of Vienne, the metropolitan of 
Geneva, to excommunicate that city, the indignation of the 
other citizens was roused to such a pitch, that, in a general 
assembly held on the 29th of December, they forbade, under 
rigorous penalties, the future recognition of the archbishop 
and his spiritual court, and even refused to obey any letters 



* Ruchat, iv. 33. 
+ Besson, Memoires Eccles., cited by Grenus, Fragm. Biogr., p. 145. 



42 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



apostolical which might be addressed to them by their own 
bishop.* Meanwhile, in conjunction with the Duke of 
Savoy, Peter de la Beaume resorted to all methods of 
annoying the Genevese. It was even discovered, from an 
intercepted letter, that he had joined the league of the Gentil- 
hommes de la Cuillere, or gentlemen of the spoon : a conspi- 
racy hatched among some of the principal inhabitants of the 
Pays de Vaud, with the design of blockading Geneva and 
starving the inhabitants ; the members of which league, 
assisted by their dependants, way-laid, plundered, and in some 
cases even murdered, such of the Genevese as ventured 
beyond their walls. It was by two members of this league 
that Bonnivard, the prior of St. Victor, was seized in 1536, 
and, after being robbed, led to the Castle of Chillon ; where, 
with the sanction of the Duke of Savoy, he was detained a 
prisoner, till the place was captured by the Bernese in 
March, 1536.t 

The hatred inspired by this conduct of the bishop was 
aggravated by the remembrance of his violence and profli- 
gacy : of which he had given a signal instance shortly before 
his departure from Geneva, by openly carrying off a young 
lady of good family, whom he detained in his palace till com- 
pelled to restore her by the mob which surrounded it. J 

But though these occurrences tended to shake the alle- 
giance of the Genevese towards their ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, and, consequently, towards the papal power generally, 
it was not till 1532 that there appeared among them any 
open manifestations in favour of the Reformed doctrines. It 
having been announced in that year that Pope Clement VII. 
was about to publish a Jubilee, placards were discovered in 
different parts of Geneva, promising a general pardon of sins 
on the sole conditions of repentance, and a lively faith in the 

* Ruchat, ii. 27, et seq. 
*f* Registres de Geneve, 1 Avril, 1536. Spon, i. 141. t Ruchat, ii. 32. 



CHAP. II.] 



F ABEL'S ARKIYAL AT GENEVA. 



43 



promises of Christ. Peter Wernly, a canon of St. Peter's, 
but a native of Friburgh, having surprised one John Goulas 
in the act of affixing one of these placards to a pillar in that 
church, struck him, and drew his sword. Goulas also drew ; 
a combat ensued, and Wernly was wounded in the arm. 
The council of Friburgh remonstrated : that of Geneva 
replied that these proceedings had occurred without their 
knowledge ; but added that they were resolved, like their allies 
at Friburgh, to live in the ancient religion ; and, in proof of 
their sincerity, prohibited the placards by sound of trumpet.* 

In the month of October of the same year, there entered 
Geneva a little man of mean appearance, with a vulgar face, 
a narrow forehead, a pale, but sun-burnt complexion, and a 
chin on which appeared two or three tufts of a red and ill- 
combed beard, but whose fiery eye and expressive mouth 
announced to the close observer a more remarkable character 
than his general appearance seemed to indicate. f He rode 
a fine white horse, and was accompanied by another man, 
mounted on a black one. It was William Farel, and his 
friend Anthony Saunier. They had been attending a synod 
of the Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont; whence, at 
the instance of the Bernese council, and well furnished with 
credentials and letters of recommendation, they had bent 
their steps towards Geneva, to put their sickles into the 
harvest of the Lord. 

Farel's history is so bound up with that of Calvin that it 
will be proper to give a short account of him. He was born 
at Gap, in Dauphine, in the year 1489, and was descended 
from a noble family which had some possessions in that 
province. The blind and unreasoning enthusiasm which 

* Ruchat, iii. 174. Spon, i. 463. 
f Le CJironiqueur. Soeur Jeanne de Jussie records Farel's appearance at 
Geneva with a contempt inspired probably by his person : " Au mois d'Octobre 
vint a Geneve un chetif malheureux predicant nomme maitre Guillaume." 
— Kirchhofer, Leben Farete, i. 1 57. 



44 



LTFE OF JOHN" CALYIN. 



[chap. II. 



formed the salient feature in his character, and which con- 
stantly demanded an object, had vented itself in early life in 
a superstitions observance of the more ascetic parts of 
papistry, and in an extraordinary veneration for the Pope's 
person, whom he regarded not merely as an agent appointed 
by God, but even as a sort of divinity.* The nature of his 
education tended at first to increase this disposition. His early 
youth was a little anterior to the revival of sound learning; 
and at the High School of Paris he became imbued with the 
scholastic divinity and still more wretched philosophy of the 
age. At a later period, however, he was fortunate enough to 
become the pupil of Le Fevre d'Etaples, at whose recom- 
mendation he began to study the Bible ; and in order to 
understand it the better, applied himself to the acquirement 
of Greek and Hebrew. Farel was soon struck with the 
difference between the precepts of Scripture and the practice 
of the Church ; and the result was his thorough conversion to 
the tenets of the Reformation. Meanwhile he had become, 
as we have seen, regent of the college of Cardinal Le Moine ; 
a post of distinguished honour, and subsequently filled by 
Turnebus, Buchanan, Muretus, and other eminent men. 
When the persecutions broke out he was forced to abandon 
this office, and, after a short residence at Meaux, repaired 
in February, 1524, to Basle. He had been there but a few 
days, when his restless zeal led him to publish a disputation, 
in which he engaged to maintain thirteen theses against the 
Boman Catholics. The bishop's vicar and the rector of the 
academy did all they could to hinder it, but Farel obtained 
the permission of the municipal council, and the disputation 
took place on the 15th of February. f 

Farel had come to Basle brimful of indignation against 
Erasmus, who felt an aversion to this class of hot-headed 
Beformers, which he was at no pains to conceal. " I abhor 



* Kirehhofer, i. 3. 
t Gerdesius, ii. 269. These theses will be found in Kirchhofer, i. 22. 



CHAP. II.] 



SKETCH OF FAREl/s LIFE. 



45 



the evangelists/' said he, " as for other reasons, so because 
it is through them that literature is declining in every place, 
and entertained with coldness and contempt, and on the 
point of perishing; and without letters what is life ? They 
love money and women, and despise all other things. We 
have been stunned long enough with the cry of Gospel, 
Gospel, Gospel. We want Gospel manners." * 

To a man of cultivated taste, like Erasmus, it must have 
been painful to witness the havoc committed by the more 
fanatical Eeformers. In a letter to Pirchheimer, describing 
the progress of the Reformation at Basle, he complains that 
pictures, statues, and other works of art, no matter what 
their merit or value, were sacrificed by their remorseless and 
indiscriminating zeal.f The charge of discouraging litera- 
ture must, however, be confined to the more violent section 
of the Reformers. Carlostadt, in Luther's absence, emptied 
the schools, and bade all to labour with their hands; but 
Luther himself knew the value of sound learning as the 
handmaid of pure theology, and considered it the harbinger 
of all signal revelations of the word of God. J Melancthon, 
too, was one of the most elegant scholars of his age, and in 
his lectures on Terence delivered at the University of Tubin- 
gen, had first pointed out the metres of that author, whose 
verses had previously been printed like prose. § 

Piqued by the slights and neglects which Farel publicly 
manifested towards him, Erasmus is said to have sought an 
interview with him, in which he asked the reason of such con- 
duct, and why he had given him the name of Balaam. A conver- 
sation ensued, in which Luther's dogmas were discussed; 
and after several sallies on both sides, they parted, as might 
have been expected, worse friends than ever. || The impetuosity 
of Farel, to whom discretion was an utter stranger, led him 

* Jortin, Erasmus, i. 442. =f See Ep. 1048. 

X M. Adamus, Vita Lutheri, p. 164. § lb., Vita Mdanct7ionis, p. 330. 
|| Ruchat, i. 584, App. 



46 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIX. 



[CHAP. II. 



to attack Erasmus publicly. He charged him with want of 
courage to avow the true doctrine, though he secretly enter- 
tained it, and accused him of a design to repress the gospel, 
then just bursting into day. After a few attempts at expos- 
tulation, Erasmus retired from a contest with so violent an 
adversary, for which he was naturally disqualified. He 
avenged himself, after his own fashion, by quietly fixing the 
nickname of Phallicus* on Farel, and by using all his 
influence to get him expelled from Basle, in which he 
succeeded. 

On leaving Basle, where he had remained only a few 
months, Farel proceeded to Montbelliard. Here the anger 
of Erasmus still pursued him. In letters to the bishop's 
official at Besancon, and to other friends, he painted Farel 
as a bold, lying, and turbulent man ; at the same time throwing 
out a hint that it would be necessary to use compulsion 
towards him.t It is probable that Erasmus's dislike of the 
man led him to exaggerate his faults. Yet we have the 
evidence of one of FareFs own friends, and a man of truly 
moderate and Christian principles, to his want of charity 
and gentleness. CEcolampadius, writing to him at Mont- 
belliard, says, " I questioned N respecting your meek- 
ness, than which nothing is more becoming to a Christian, 
not to say an apostle. But though he wonderfully praised 
your indefatigable industry, your unquenchable ardour, 
and your tolerable success, he added that you poured out 
torrents of reproaches upon the priests. Forsooth, I am not 
ignorant of their deserts, nor in what colours they ought to 
be painted ; yet with your leave I would say, as a friend, and 

* Probably from some manifestation of those amorous propensities which led 
Farel in his old age to marry quite a girl. 

f Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, i. 22, See also Erasmus's letters to the Bishop of 
Rochester, and to Brugnarius at Montbelliard, in the autumn of 1524 (Epp. 698 
and 707). From the latter it appears that one of the topics of Erasmus's 
dispute with Farel had turned on the nature of the Holy Ghost, and whether 
that person of the Trinity ought to be invoked. 



CHAP. II.] 



SKETCH OF FAKEL's LIFE. 



47 



brother to a brother, that you do not always seem to be 
mindful of your office. Your mission is to evangelise, and 
not to curse. I pardon, nay, I praise your zeal, provided it 
be not deficient in gentleness. Labour, my brother, that my 
spirit may be rejoiced with this news also ; — that at the 
proper time you pour in the wine and oil ; that you prove 
yourself an evangelist, and not a tyrannical law-giver."* 

Farel remained but a short time at Montbelliard ; but 
whether he was driven thence by the machinations of 
Erasmus is uncertain. According to an old story, which 
rests, however, on no certain foundation, he was forced to 
fly for having snatched the reliques of St. Anthony from a 
priest who was bearing them in solemn procession, and 
thrown them into the water.f 

Strasburgh was then the common refuge of the persecuted, 
and thither Farel bent his steps. In this town he dwelt more 
than a year, enjoying the friendship of Bucer and Capito, and 
living in the latter' s house. In October, 1526, he revisited 
Basle j and before the end of that year, assuming the name 
of Ursinus, and the profession of a schoolmaster, proceeded 
into Switzerland as a missionary of the gospel, without any 
fixed cure or salary. In March, 1527, the council of Berne 
sanctioned his preaching in the district of Aigle till the 
incumbent should have provided an efficient curate. This 
was the first time that the gospel had been preached in 
Switzerland in the French tongue; and in spite of the 
repulsive severity of his doctrines, and the opposition he 
experienced from the court of the Bishop of Lausanne, 
Farel succeeded in making some converts. He was indeed 
an excellent field-preacher, for which his undaunted bold- 
ness, his fiery zeal, and his trumpet-toned voice, admirably 
qualified him. In June, 1530, he received a formal com- 
mission from the Bernese government to preach in all places 
subject to their jurisdiction. J 

* M. Adamus, Vita Farelli, p. 115. + Kirchhofer, i. 48. £ lb., p. 98. 



48 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. II. 



From this period till his arrival at Geneva in 1532, FareFs 
labours in spreading the gospel were chiefly exerted at 
Neufchatel and in the surrounding neighbourhood. To detail 
these does not belong to the present subject. Suffice it to 
say, that they were often attended with risk of life, and not 
unfrequently brought upon him severe personal chastisement. 
The council of Berne was sometimes obliged to admonish 
him to be discreet ; and Zwingli himself, a little before his 
death, exhorted him not to expose himself rashly, but to reserve 
himself for the further service of the Lord.* His bitter and 
persevering attacks upon the Romish clergy obtained him 
the name of " the Scourge of the Priests." 

The arrival of such a man at Geneva, where he was well 
known by reputation, caused, as may be imagined, no little 
consternation, not only among the clergy, but even in the 
council. The latter had, indeed, been awakened to a sense 
of the ignorance, absurdity, and profligacy of the priesthood; 
and perceiving the growth and tendency of public opinion, 
had exhorted them to preach the gospel instead of retailing 
the ridiculous legends and fables with which they were 
accustomed to amuse their auditory : but political motives, 
especially the influence of Friburgh, and the dread of losing 
the alliance of that city, restrained them from openly encou- 
raging the Reformers. 

The day after their arrival, Farel and Saunier were visited 
at their lodgings by numbers of the citizens, whom they 
addressed on religious topics. Among these was Ami Perrin, 
a distinguished citizen of Geneva, and one of the earliest and 
most ardent promoters of the Reformation, but whom there 
will be frequent occasion to mention in the course of this 
narrative, as having subsequently become one of Calvin's 
chief opponents. The news of these proceedings reached the 
council, who summoned Farel and Saunier to their presence, 
censured them as disturbers of the peace, and ordered them 

* Kirclihofer, i. 147. 



chap, ii.] farel's labours at geneya. 



49 



to depart the city. The former replied that he was no 
trumpet of sedition, but a preacher of the truth, for which he 
was prepared to sacrifice not only his labour but his life. 
He then produced the credentials with which the Bernese had 
furnished him, and in which they requested their allies to 
receive him with kindness, and to listen to his doctrine. 
This somewhat mollified the council ; who permitted him to 
retire to his lodgings, but forbade him to preach his new 
doctrines.* 

Scarce had Farel and Saunier reached home, when they 
received a summons to attend a disputation at the house of 
the Abbe de Beaumont, the vicar-general. Nothing, how- 
ever, was further from the intention of the Roman Catholic 
priests than discussion. They had been heard to say, " Si 
disputetur, totum nostrum mysterium destruetur : " " If we 
argue, our trade is gone." We have the evidence of a 
bigoted Catholic that it was the intention of this meeting 
to take FarelV life.f The council, however, suspected the 
violence of the clergy ; and lest their conduct towards Farel 
should occasion a quarrel with Berne, they sent two of the 
syndics to accompany and protect him, who made the eccle- 
siastics swear that they would do the ministers no injury, 
though they should maintain their doctrines against them. 
Farel and his friend were also accompanied to the meeting 
by Olivetan, who was now living in a gentleman's family at 
Geneva, in the capacity of tutor, and who secretly employed 
himself in furthering the Reformation. On their road they 
were assailed with abuse, and when they arrived at the place 
of meeting, they were received with the greatest insolence by 
De Vegia, the bishop's officer. He reproached them with 
having the appearance of robbers, and treated them scorn- 
fully as laymen, who could neither have knowledge nor 
authority to preach. When Farel spoke of a call from above, 

* Ruchat, iii. 176. Kirchhofer. 
f Jeanne de Jussie, quoted by Kirchhofer, i. 158. 

E 



50 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



De Vegia required him to prove it by a miracle, as Moses 
did before Pharaoh. His appearance in the assembly, the 
members of which carried weapons concealed under their 
clothes, was the signal for uproar and abuse. " Come, Farel, 
thou filthy devil/' exclaimed the canons, " art thou bap- 
tised? Whence art thou? Why dost thou creep about 
troubling the world ? Who invited thee hither ? Who gives 
thee power to preach ? Art thou not he that has spread the 
Lutheran heresy in Aigle and Neufchatel, seducing the 
people all around ? Wherefore comest thou to sow the seed 
of heresy here, and in all the land ? " 

" Sirs/' replied Farel, " I have been baptised in the name 
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and am no devil. 
I go about announcing Jesus Christ, who died for our sins 
upon the cross, aud again rose from the dead to further our 
salvation. Whoever believes in him shall receive eternal 
life, but unbelievers shall go into everlasting perdition. I am 
sent by God, our gracious Father, as a messenger of Christ, 
and am bound to preach him to all who will listen ; and with 
all my power have I striven that every one should receive 
him. On a journey have I come hither to see if any one will 
hear me ; and am ready to dispute with you, and to give an 
account of my faith and of my ministry. It is for this, I 
hear, that you have called me before you. So long as it shall 
please you to hear me quietly, I will maintain unto the death 
that what I have preached, and what I daily preach, is the 
pure truth, and no heresy, as ye charge me. I go not forth 
in the name of man, but of God, who hath chosen me to be 
his minister, and am far from designing to disturb this city, as 
ye object to me. Elias said to King Ahab, ' It is thou, and 
not I, who disturbest all Israel :' and so may I say unto you, 
it is not I who bring the disturbance, but ye and your fol- 
lowers, who disturb not only this town, but all the world, by 
your teaching, and your worldly laws, and your unholy lives."* 

* Kirchhofer, i. 160. 



chap. ii. 1 EXPULSION OF FAEEL FEOM GENEVA. 51 



.By this speech the rage of the ecclesiastics was roused to 
the highest pitch. One of the canons exclaimed, in the words 
of Caiaphas, ' ' Blasphemavit ; non amplius indigemus testibus : 
reus est mortis : " " He hath blasphemed ; we want no further 
evidence; he deserves to die:" adding, in French, " au Rhone, 
au Rhone !" words which, at Geneva, conveyed no obscure sen- 
tence of death. Farel replied, " Speak the words of God and 
not of Caiaphas." Hereupon the whole assembly called out to 
kill the dog of a Lutheran. Farel was reviled, struck, and spit 
upon ; nay, one of the vicar-general's servants even shot at 
him, but without doing him any harm. From this dangerous 
situation he was rescued by one of the syndics, who threat- 
ened to sound the tocsin and raise the people, unless the 
assembly desisted from further violence. He and Saunier 
were, however, ordered by the episcopal council to leave 
Geneva; and early on the following morning, the 4th of 
October, escorted by a large party of friends to protect them 
from insult, among whom were Ami Perrin, Claude Bernard, 
and Jean Goulas, they proceeded to the water's edge, and 
getting into a boat crossed the lake to a spot between 
Lausanne and Morsee. Thence they proceeded to Orbe, 
where they arrived in safety.* 

Farel's expulsion from Geneva damped for a while the 
ardour of the Reformers in that city. He himself, however, 
did not abandon his hopes. In the neighbourhood of Orbe 
he found a young man named Antoine Froment, a native of 
Dauphine, like himself, who at his request consented to go 
to Geneva, and carry on the work which had been begun. 
Froment arrived there in November, but was received with 
such coldness and distrust that he was on the point of aban- 
doning his enterprise. He was preparing to leave the place 
when it occurred to him that he might obtain his object 
by a pious fraud. He hired a large room, set up a school, 
and gave out that he would teach people of all ages to read 

* Ruchat,iii. 179. Spon, i. 468. 
E 2 



52 



LIFE OF JOHK CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



and write in a month, together with other accomplishments. 
When he was well established he began to talk to his pupils, 
many of whom were of ripe age, on religious topics, and thus 
excited a spirit of inquiry. Several little books of contro- 
versy appeared, and were read with avidity. The labours of 
Froment were assisted by the sermons of Boquet, a Cordelier, 
but at heart a Protestant. 

On the last day of 1532 some of the Reformers were drink- 
ing with the vicar of the Magdalen, when a dispute arose 
concerning Froment' s doctrines. The vicar undertook to 
refute them from Scripture, and the party adjourned to his 
house, where several other priests were assembled. Instead of 
the sacred volume, however, the vicar, amidst the jeers of his 
opponents, produced Nicholas de Lyra, a scholastic writer. 
The scene grew warm. Much abuse was uttered on both sides. 
One of the priests laid his hand on his sword; others ran to 
sound the tocsin. A mob collected, and it was with difficulty 
that the syndics were able to appease the tumult. In the 
evening the council forbade these sorts of disputes, and ordered 
Froment to leave the city.* 

On the following day, however, being the 1st of January, 
1533, after hearing a sermon by Boquet, the people went in 
such numbers to Froment's house, that the apartment where 
he used to preach, was not large enough to contain them. 
A cry arose, " au Molar d !" 'f Those nearest Froment car- 
ried him off to the market-place, where they placed him 
on a fish- wife's bench, the crowd exclaiming, " Preach to us 
the word of God \" Froment accordingly began, nor would 
he desist at the command of an officer sent by the council ; 
observing, " It is better to obey God than man." Some 
armed men were sent to seize him, but Froment escaped into 
the house of a citizen. He now perceived, however, that 
it was dangerous to remain ; and shortly afterwards escaped 
by night to Orbe.J 

* Ruchat, iii. 184. Spon, i.471. 
f An open space where the market was held. + Ruchat, iii. 185. 



chap, ii.] FROMENT SUCCEEDS FAREL — DISTURBANCES. 53 



By way of opposing the Reformers, the ecclesiastics en- 
deavoured to instil into the people the greatest horror for 
their doctrines and persons. They affirmed that since the 
introduction of these new heresies, Geneva, instead of the 
blessings which it formerly enjoyed, had been visited by 
famine, pestilence, sedition, and all the worst evils that can 
afflict mankind. They represented Farel and Viret to the 
superstitious multitude as feeding devils at their tables in the 
shape of huge black cats ; they affirmed that a devil hung 
at every hair of Farel's beard, that he had no white in his 
eyes, and other absurdities of the like nature.* Neverthe- 
less Protestantism continued to spread, and in 1533 the first 
communion was celebrated in a garden without the town.f 

The clergy in those days went armed, and affrays fre- 
quently arose between them and their adherents and the 
partisans of the Reformation, in which blood was sometimes 
spilt. A fatal one occurred on the 4th of May, 1533. Many 
Genevese merchants, who were favourable to the Reforma- 
tion, were absent at the fair of Lyons, and the priests 
thought it an excellent opportunity for striking a blow. A 
preconcerted dispute was got up, and whilst it was raging, a 
man ran to the grand-vicar's to give notice of it to the 
priests assembled there, whilst another hastened to St. 
Peter's, to rouse the canons and sound the tocsin. The 
canons issued forth in a body to the Molard, Peter "Wernly 
at their head, armed cap-a-pie, and brandishing a huge two- 
handed sword. " Cher Dieu !" he exclaimed, " where are 
the Lutherans V 3 protested that he was ready to die for the 
Church, and encouraged his followers to attack the other 
party. The Lutherans, however, were more numerous than 
had been anticipated. Wernly's band was routed, and 
he himself killed, whilst endeavouring to save himself by 
flight.J 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, i. 168. 
+ Ruchat,iii. 188. % Spon, i. 492. Ruchat, iii. 226. 



54 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. ir. 



This event caused great embarrassment at Geneva. The 
Friburghers demanded justice for the blood of their fellow- 
citizen, and insisted on the Bishop of Geneva being recalled, 
to try the assassins. The Genevese did not think it prudent 
to refuse ; and on the 1st of July, after an absence of several 
years, Peter de la Beaume re-entered Geneva with princely 
honours. One of his first acts was to release the priests who 
had been imprisoned for the tumult. On the 3rd of J uly, 
after a solemn mass, he convened a general assembly, and 
demanded of them, by the mouth of the President of Bur- 
gundy, whether they did not recognise him as their lawful 
prince ? The answer being in the affirmative, he exhorted 
them to live in unity, and addressed some threats to those 
who had quitted the Bomish faith. 

The mode in which the prisoners for the murder of Wernly 
should be tried, was made a party question, in which Berne 
and Friburgh exerted their influence ; the former in favour 
of the new and popular constitutional forms, and the latter 
in behalf of the bishop's jurisdiction. It was at length 
arranged that the case should be tried by the syndics and 
council, with the assistance of two clerks of the bishop's, 
two of Friburgh, and two of Berne ; who, however, were not 
to have a vote. All the prisoners were acquitted, except a 
wretched carman, who, on being tortured, confessed that he 
had stabbed Wernly in the back. The bishop, however, did 
not await the issue of the trial. Fearing, or pretending to 
fear, some violence from the people, he suddenly left Geneva 
on the 14th of July, and never again returned.* 

The Catholic party, thus frustrated in their plan for re- 
storing the supremacy of their religion by means of the 
bishop, resolved on opposing the Protestants with their own 
weapons. Towards the close of 1533, they caused Guy 
Furbity, a Dominican, and a doctor of the Sorbonne, who 
possessed great reputation for learning and eloquence, to be 



* Ruchat, iii. 232, et seq. 



chap, a.] RETURN OF THE BISHOP — FURBITY. 55 



brought to Geneva, to preach the Advent sermons. Instead 
of preaching at the Couvent de Rive, the usual place, he was 
escorted with great pomp to St. Peter's by a large body of 
armed Catholics. One of his sermons on the subject of the 
soldiers dividing our Lord's garment, in which he applied 
the text to the various sects of heretics into which the Church 
was split, and loaded the Protestants with abuse, gave great 
offence to the Bernese, who considered his words as directed 
against themselves. They demanded his arrest; and in 
order to counteract the effect of his discourses, sent back 
Farel, Viret, and Froment, to Geneva, under the protection 
of their ambassadors. The Friburghers remonstrated, and 
threatened to cancel their alliance with Geneva ; the Bernese, 
on their side, held out the same menace. The confusion was 
increased by a proclamation of the grand-vicar's, on the 1st 
of January, 1534, prohibiting preaching without his or the 
bishop's license, and ordering all French and German Bibles 
to be destroyed. It was evident that matters were draw- 
ing to a crisis, and that the Genevese must shortly choose 
between the alliance of Berne or Friburgh, between the 
Protestant or Catholic faith. In the course of January, an 
embassy arrived from Berne to demand Furbity's arrest and 
trial ; and to require that a Reformed minister should be 
appointed to each of the seven parishes of Geneva : and these 
requisitions were supported by an awkward demand for the 
repayment of the large sums due to the Bernese on account 
of the war. Furbity being summoned before the council, 
denied that his discourses had been aimed at the Bernese, 
and offered to prove all that he had said from Scripture. A 
public disputation accordingly took place between him and 
Farel and Yiret, which began on the 29th of January and 
lasted several days. Furbity, broke down in his undertaking, 
especially with regard to the prohibition of meat in Lent, for 
which he could produce only the authority of Aquinas. 
Hereupon the Bernese ambassadors demanded justice against 



56 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. n. 



him as a liar, and preacher of dreams ; and at their instance 
he was sentenced to be banished, after he should have made 
a public retractation in St. Peter's church. Pale, and with 
hurried steps, the monk mounted the pulpit on the day ap- 
pointed for his recantation ; but, instead of making it, he began 
to complain of injustice. The Bernese ambassadors insisted 
on his complying with the verdict ; and on his again demur- 
ring, the people fell upon him and almost killed him. He was 
thrown into prison, where he remained for two years, when 
he was released at the intercession of Francis I. Farel after- 
wards published an account of this dispute with Furbity, and 
made use of an artifice which can hardly be justified. It 
purported to be written by a friend of the monk's ; and to 
lend a colour to the deception, some praise was bestowed on 
him in the preface.* 

Under the protection of the Bernese ambassador, Farel, 
Viret, and Froment, continued vigorously to push the Refor- 
mation. At length, even the council showed symptoms 
of yielding; and to the instances of the Bernese that the 
Reformed ministers should be allowed to preach publicly, 
replied, that, though they could not give a formal sanction 
to such a step, they would not use any means to hinder it.f 
In consequence of this, on Sunday the 1st of March, after 
the Franciscan who usually preached at the Couvent de Rive 
had finished his sermon, Ami Perrin, Baudichon, and other 
friends of the Reformation, fetched Farel and made him 
mount the pulpit, having first rung the bell to assemble the 
people. J This was the first Protestant sermon preached in a 
Genevese church. The Friburghers protested against these 
proceedings, and threatened to tear their seal from the treaty ; 
a threat which they actually carried into execution, on the 
12th of April, 1534. 

There being now nothing further to fear from Friburgh, 
the Reformation made rapid progress at Geneva. The 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, i. 182. f Ruchat, iii. 284. , % Spon, i. 528. 



chap, n.] DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES. 



57 



Protestants, by degrees, obtained possession of other pulpits 
besides that of the Couvent de Rive. Superstition was 
attacked in its strongholds by the demolition of the three 
convents, situated in the Fauocbourgs, which were pulled down 
in order to strengthen the fortifications of the city.* Others 
of the religious orders, seeing their occupation gone, fled 
voluntarily from Geneva, carrying with them the spoils 
of their monasteries. The nuns of St. Claire obtained per- 
mission to depart to Anneci, to an asylum prepared for them 
by the Duke of Savoy, where they might avoid those heresies 
which filled them with alarm and horror. One of the sister- 
hood, the Sceur de Jussie, in a book still extant,t has painted 
in the most lively colours, and with the utmost naivete, the 
particulars of their removal, which seemed to them like a 
migration into a strange and distant country. Some of 
them had not been outside the convent walls for many years, 
and were filled with alarm at the commonest objects. They 
spent a whole day in getting to St. Julien, about a league 
from Geneva. " It was a piteous thing," says the Sceur de 
Jussie, "to see this holy company in such a plight, so over- 
come with fatigue and grief, that several swooned by the 
way. It was rainy weather, and all were obliged to walk 
through the muddy roads, except four poor invalids who were 
in the carriage. There were six poor old women who had 
taken their vows more than sixteen years before. Two of 
these, who were past sixty-six, and had never seen any- 
thing of the world, fainted away repeatedly. They could 
not bear the wind; and when they saw the cattle in the 
fields, they took the cows for bears, and the long-woolled 
sheep for ravishing wolves. They who met them were so 
overcome with compassion, that they could not speak a word. 
And though our mother, the vicaress, had supplied them all 
with good shoes to save their feet, the greater number could 



* Besides these there were three monasteries within the walls, and several 
chapels. + Le Commencement de VHeresie en Geneve. 



58 



LIFE OF JOHN" CALYIN. 



[chap. II. 



not walk in them, but hung them at their waists. And so 
they walked from five o' clock in the morning, when they left 
Geneva, till near midnight, when they got to St. Julien, 
which is only a little league off." Appearances, however, 
would seem to show that these good nuns were not so simple 
as they Wished to be thought ; for after their departure, there 
were discovered in their convent subterraneous passages, 
which communicated with that of the Franciscans.* 

It is unnecessary to follow minutely the remaining steps, 
which at length, in August, 1535, led to the complete 
establishment of the Reformation at Geneva. On the 
8th of that month the Protestants went in a body to St. 
Peter's, the cathedral church, and very throne, as it were, of 
Romanism, and obliged Farel to come and preach them a 
sermon. In the evening a great multitude again resorted 
thither, overthrew the images, and committed other acts of 
violence. On the following day a still more serious dis- 
turbance took place. The Reformers assembled in arms, and 
led by Perrin, Baudichon, and Vandel, went with drums 
beating to St. Gervais, St. Dominique de Palais, and other 
churches, where they did still greater damage than they had 
done at St. Peter's. The council now saw that they could 
no longer delay taking some decisive step, and therefore on 
the 10th of August, as Farel had frequently exhorted them 
to do, they assembled the council of Two Hundred. Before 
this assembly Farel appeared at the head of the ministers, and 
addressed it in that style of bold and masculine eloquence 
which was peculiar to him, concluding with a prayer to the 
Almighty that it might please him to enlighten the members 
of it. This had the desired effect. It was resolved to abolish 
Popery; and on the evening of the same day three of the 
syndics, and two members of the council, waited on the 
bishop's grand-vicar to announce the resolution which had 
been adopted. From this day mass ceased to be publicly 

* See Grenus, Fragmens Jlistoriques, p. 208. Ruchat, iii. 383. 



chap, ii ] THE REFORMATION ESTABLISHED. 



59 



performed at Geneva ; nay, even its private celebration was 
forbidden without the permission of the council, whose 
conduct seems to have been regulated by instructions from 
Berne.* On the 27th of the same month the council 
published an order, requiring the citizens to worship God 
according to the Scriptures, and forbidding all papistical 
idolatry, f This may be considered as the virtual establishment 
of Protestantism at Geneva, though a more solemn sanction 
was given to it on the 21st of May, in the following year ; 
when, at the instance of Farel, the citizens were assembled, 
and an oath administered to them that they would live 
according to the precepts of the gospel. The political 
consequences which resulted from these steps have been 
already alluded to. Q> , ? m , 

The Genevese now turned their attention towards placing 
the new church on a permanent footing. Four ministers 
and two deacons were appointed, with fixed salaries payable 
out of the ecclesiastical revenues. Regulations were made to 
enforce a stricter discipline. All shops were ordered to be shut 
on the Sabbath ; a sermon was appointed to be preached at 
four in the morning for servants and such as could not attend 
at a later hour ; the communion was to be administered four 
times a year ; baptism on any day whatever, but only by a 
minister, and in the church. Nor was the education of youth 
neglected. A school was established at the Couvent de Rive, 
and Saunier appointed to the mastership. 

But FareFs zeal was accompanied with intolerance. In 
April, 1536, he summoned to Geneva the priests of the 
surrounding villages, and required them to make an immediate 
renunciation of Popery. An aged priest, as spokesman for 
the rest, remarked with sense and dignity on the hardship 
of being required to repudiate, at a moment's notice, a system 

* P. Lullin having requested that he and his friends might be permitted to say 
mass, we find the following entry in the Registers, Sept. 2nd, 1535 : "Ordonne 
d'attendre des nouvelles de Berne, afin de voir ce qu'il y a a faire." — Grenus, 
Fragmens Historiques. f Ruchat, in. 373, Spon, i. 571. 



60 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



of religion which had lasted for so many ages ; and that, too, 
before any attempt had been made to convince them of its 
falsehood. " Send teachers," he said, "to instruct ns wherein 
we err, and when we are convinced, we will follow yon." In 
this reply Farel saw only a spirit of obstinate resistance ; but 
Bonnivard, who had recently been released from his long 
imprisonment, was for giving the country clergy time ; and 
pointed out that so forced and sudden a conversion could 
never be sincere. In consequence of his representations a 
month was allowed them for consideration. This, however, 
was but a short space in which to get rid of the habits and 
prejudices of a life ; and though at the expiration of it the 
greater part of the rural clergy gave in their adherence to 
Protestantism, it is not surprising that many instances of 
apostasy should have subsequently occurred.* 

The conversion of Geneva into a republic by the overthrow 
of the episcopal power, was necessarily attended with some 
changes in its government ; and as Calvin's personal history, 
as well as the form of ecclesiastical polity which he established, 
are so closely connected with the Genevese constitution as 
not to be clearly intelligible without a general knowledge of 
the latter, it will be proper to give a short account of it here. 

Whilst the government of the bishop existed at Geneva, he 
was assisted by four magistrates, called syndics, and by a 
council. The duties of the syndics were to keep the peace, and 
watch over the safety of the city, to preside in the assemblies, 
and the like. The burgesses, as already said, had the right 
of meeting in general assembly, and were consulted on all 
important emergencies. In order to avoid the too frequent 
convocation of this body, whose proceedings were often tur- 
bulent, a council of Sixty had been instituted in 1457 ; f and 

* Ruchat, iv. 124. Spon,ii. 13. Kirclihofer, i. 195. 
f Galiffe, quoted by P. Henry, ii. 64. The annotator on Spon (i. 437) 
places the institution of this council after the Bernese alliance. Bonnivard 
(apud Ruchat, i. 319) mentions a council of Fifty at the beginning of the six- 
teenth century, probably the same body. 



CHAP. II.] 



GENEVESE CONSTITUTION. 



61 



after the alliance with Friburgh and Berne in 1526, another 
council of Two Hundred was added, in imitation of the con- 
stitution of those cities. The ancient or ordinary council, 
which was the executive power of the state, consisted of six- 
teen members, besides the four syndics of the current year, 
the four retiring syndics, and the treasurer ; making a total of 
twenty-five persons. Gentlemen, graduates in some science, 
and wholesale dealers, were alone eligible to this office. The 
Sixty were, of right, members of the council of Two Hundred, 
and the ordinary or little council formed part of both the other 
bodies, which did not always consist of the exact number 
indicated by their names.* Previously to the institution of 
the Two Hundred, the ordinary council had been elected by 
the four syndics, each syndic choosing four members to serve 
for the current year. But as this arrangement was thought 
to throw too much power into the hands of the syndics, in 
1530 the Two Hundred assumed to themselves the election 
of the ordinary council ;f though, by way of equilibrium, it 
was resolved that the ordinary council should in its turn 
elect the members of the Two Hundred. The latter assembly, 
as well as the Sixty, met only when summoned by the ordi- 
nary council ; but any member of them could demand their 
being summoned, provided he paid the expenses ; namely, a 
sol to each member, equal to about a franc of present money. J 
The establishment of the Two Hundred did not put an end 
to the general assembly of the burgesses, though it rendered 
the necessity for its meeting less frequent ; and it was subse- 
quently part of Calvin's policy to curtail the privileges of this 
democratic body. It assembled, however, as a matter of 
course, in February to choose the syndics, and in November 
to fix the price of wine^ and to nominate the lieutenant- 

* Thus, in the Registers of Geneva, Feb. 12th, 1535, we read : " Conseil des 
60 est elu ; il est compose de 67 personnes, outre le conseil ordinaire. On 
elit aussi le conseil des CC ; qui, y compris les deux susdits conseils, est com- 
pose de 175 personnes." — Grenus, Fragmens Historiques, sub anno. 

t Mgistres, 28 Fe'vrier, 1530. J Galiffe, apud P. Henry, ii. 64. 



62 



LIFE OF JOHX CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



criminel, or chief officer of police, and his court, consisting of 
four assistants or auditors. The other meetings of the general 
assembly were according to emergencies. Though it had the 
election of the syndics, its choice was confined to eight per- 
sons, whose names were submitted to it by the little council ; 
and of the four chosen, two were to be taken from the higher, 
and two from the lower, class of citizens. 

From this brief sketch of the Genevese government, it 
is evident that the real power lay almost entirely in the 
ordinary council, whose constitution rendered it a kind of 
oligarchy. The syndics, who, in and out of office, enjoyed 
their seats for at least two years, formed nearly one-third of 
the whole body ; whilst the treasurer was elected for five years. 
And though the remaining sixteen members were chosen 
annually by the Two Hundred, yet, as the choice of that body 
was restricted to thirty names proposed by the ordinary 
council itself, and as the latter body elected the members of 
the Two Hundred, the more influential party in the ordinary 
council found no difficulty in securing the return of its 
adherents. It is the more necessary to observe this oligar- 
chical tendency, since it was the means which enabled Calvin 
to carry out his views, and which it was consequently his 
policy to foster and augment. The predominance thus con- 
ferred on the ordinary council by its constitution, was 
heightened by the important functions with which it was 
invested ; since it enjoyed not only the executive, but the 
judicial and legislative powers.* 

Such was the state of Geneva when, as before related, 
Calvin arrived there in August, 1536. It may be doubted 
whether his earlier arrival in that city would have materially 
assisted the cause of the Reformation ; since, as we have seen, 
it was brought about by turbulent changes, demanding great 
physical energy and courage. But the ground once cleared, 
and the Reformation established on a tolerably sure footing, 

* Galiffe, apud P. Henry, ii. 63, et seq. 



CHAP. II.] 



CALVIN JOINS FAREL. 



63 



the clear and vigorous understanding, the extensive and ready 
learning, the unshaken fortitude, and the prudence and con- 
sistency of purpose which characterised Calvin, admirably 
adapted him to confirm and extend its empire. Farel had 
still many obstacles to contend with. Though Protestantism 
had been established by public authority, the Popish party 
was still considerable, and offered all the resistance in its 
power. Farel had but few to help him ; and even from his 
own party he sometimes met with opposition instead of 
assistance. Ministers properly qualified for the office, and 
who could be confided in, were rare. Viret, who had narrowly 
escaped with his life the effects of poison which the priests 
had bribed his cook to administer to him in some soup, 
had retired from Geneva. At the beginning of the year 
Farel had sent to Neufchatel for him and Fabri ; but though 
the latter came, his stay seems to have been but short; and 
Viret, whilst on his journey to Geneva, had been detained 
at Lausanne, and persuaded to accept the ministry in that 
city.* It is not surprising, therefore, that when Farel heard 
of Calvin's arrival, he should have felt anxious to secure the 
services of a man already distinguished by his learning and his 
zeal. Even after succeeding in this, we find him complaining 
of the want of labourers for the harvest. In a letter dated 
on the 21st of November, 1 536, and addressed to Fabri, who 
appears to have been then at Thonon, he says : f ' I am ordered 
to bring ministers from all quarters, but where to find them 
I absolutely know not. They who are fittest, and teach Jesus 
Christ most purely, are not cared for, whilst hypocrites and 
braggarts are extolled to the skies. The over-delicate are 
not easily persuaded to come into this country ; they would 
rather be buried in the sepulchres of the Egyptians, than 
eat the manna, and follow the column, in the desert. If 
you have any influence with persons of merit, pray assist 
us,"f &c. 



* Kirchhofer, Leben FareU, i. 196. 



f Ruchat, iv. 373. 



64 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. ii. 



In Calvin, Farel not only gained a powerful coadjutor, but 
a steadfast friend. He was always ready to do homage to the 
superior talents and learning of Calvin, to whom, though so 
much his junior, he looked up with a sort of reverence ; and 
the latter, on his side, though he sometimes criticised his 
friend's literary productions with freedom,* entertained a 
favourable opinion of Farel' s abilities, and a high regard for 
his personal character. 

Shortly after his arrival Calvin was elected teacher of 
theology, in which faculty there was at that time no pro- 
fessorship at Geneva, the academy not being yet in exist- 
ence. He at first declined the office of minister; but 
accepted it the following year, having been elected by the 
magistrates and the general assembly. His first labours seem 
to have been almost gratuitous. In an entry of the Regis- 
ters of the 13th of February, 1537, we find it proposed to 
give him six gold crowns, seeing that as yet he had scarcely 
received any thing. f His first sermon was received with 
enthusiasm. Multitudes followed him home to testify their 
gratification ; and he was obliged to promise that he would 
preach again the next day, in order that others might have 
an opportunity to hear him.J At Calvin's instance, Courault, 
whose exertions at Paris, under the protection of the Queen 
of Navarre, have been already mentioned, was sent for from 
Basle; whither he had been driven by the persecutions in 
France. Blind and old, Courault still possessed unimpaired 
his powers of eloquence, which had been the means of 
converting many. 

In the month of October following his arrival, we find Calvin, 
together with Farel, Viret, Fabri, Caroli and others, attend- 
ing a disputation which the council of Berne had appointed 
to be conducted in the French language, in the cathedral of 

* See his letters to Farel in P. Henry, i. 168. 
+ " Ou donne six ecus au soleil a Cauvin, soit Calvin, vu qu'il n'a encore 
gueres recu.' — Grenus, Fragm. Biogr. X P- Henry, i. 173. 



CIMP. II.] 



DISPUTATION OF LAUSANNE. 



65 



Lausanne, as a means of instructing, in the principles of the 
Reformation, their subjects in the Pays de Vaud, which 
country had accrued to them by their victory over the 
Savoyards. All the clergy of that district were invited to 
attend: and though their efforts to avert the disputation 
were seconded by the citizens of Lausanne, and even by the 
prohibition of the emperor, they found themselves com- 
pelled to enter into it. The priests are said to have planted 
assassins to murder the Protestant ministers on the road; 
but happily the plot was discovered and frustrated.* The 
basis of the discussion consisted of ten propositions drawn 
up by Farel, with whom the main burthen of conducting 
it rested. On the fourth and fifth days, however, Calvin 
addressed the meeting with so much effect on the subject 
of transubstantiation, that a bare-footed friar, named Tandi, 
confessed his conversion on the spot.t The disputation 
proved of great service in spreading the Reformation in the 
Pays de Vaud. In order to establish it on a secure founda- 
tion, the Bernese divided the country into seven ecclesiastical 
districts, called classes, appointing proper ministers for 
each. J 

At Geneva, Farel continued to push on his schemes of 
reformation and discipline. With the assistance of Calvin 
he drew up a short confession of faith in twenty-one articles, 
which also comprised some regulations respecting church 
government. Amongst the latter the right of excommu- 
nication, allowed by the 19th article, was the most import- 
ant, as it subsequently became the chief instrument of 
Calvin's spiritual domination, and the cause of the struggles 
which ensued. In November this confession, to which 
Farel had appended the Ten Commandments, was laid 
before the council of Two Hundred, who ordered it to be 

* Kirchhofer, i. 201. 
f lb., p. 209. An abstract of the disputation will be found in Ruchat, iv. 
181—363. J lb., p. 413. 

F 



6G 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



printed, to be read in St. Peter's church every Sunday, and 
the people to be sworn to the observance of it. 

Calvin had not been long at Geneva when the Anabaptists 
began to create some disturbance there. The fanaticism of 
that sect, as is well known, had proved injurious to the 
cause of the Reformation in many parts of Europe, especially 
in Germany and Holland. At Geneva they were headed 
by two Flemings, Hermann de Liege, and Andre Benoit. 
Here, as in other places, they spread their doctrines insi- 
diously. They had given out that Farel was of their 
way of thinking, and had even succeeded in gaining some 
members of the council. By these they were introduced to 
that body, and laid before them certain propositions which 
they wished to maintain in a public disputation. To this 
the council were at first averse ; but, at the instance of 
Calvin and Farel, at length consented that one should be 
held at the Couvent de Rive. It took place in March, 1537, 
before the council and a numerous audience, and lasted 
several days. The Anabaptists, not being able to support 
their tenets by Scripture, were declared to be vanquished, 
and ordered to retract ; and, upon their refusal, were banished, 
under pain of death if they returned.* 

About the same time another opponent succeeded in giving 
Calvin and Farel a great deal of pain and annoyance. This 
was Peter Caroli, who had made himself conspicuous at 
Geneva about two years before by taking part against Jaques 
Bernard, Farel, and the other Protesta,nt ministers, in a dis- 
putation held on the occasion of Bernard's conversion. 
Caroli was a doctor of the Sorbonne, and used to preach at 
St. Paul's church, in Paris ; but having adopted the new 
fashion of reading St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, then 
newly translated into French, instead of a sermon, was cited, 
in 1524, before the faculty of theology, inhibited from preach- 
ing, and ultimately obliged to fly.f Farel had known him 

* Ruchat, v. 53. Kirehhofer, i. 219. f Gerdesius, iv. 52, et seq. 



CHAP. II.] 



THE ANABAPTISTS — CAROLI. 



07 



at Paris, where he is said to have led a very dissolute life. 
Subsequently he returned to the Catholic faith, reconciled 
himself with the Sorbonne, and obtained the cure of Alencon, 
where he at first distinguished himself as a persecutor of the 
Protestants. Vain, fickle, insinuating, and hypocritical, 
Caroli's only object seemed to be to attract public attention, 
by any means whatever. He had not been long at Alencon, 
when he again passed himself off among the Protestants as 
a convert to their principles ; and, a fresh persecution break- 
ing out, was compelled to betake himself, in 1.534, to Geneva. 
Here his behaviour was marked by the greatest duplicity. 
Though he fawned on Farel and Viret, he could never be 
brought to subscribe to their profession of faith. He was 
suspected even here of leading a disorderly life ; and on one 
occasion Farel had detected him in appropriating the proceeds 
of a collection for the poor.* Nevertheless he contrived, in 
1536, to obtain the ministry of Neufchatel, where he married. 
After the disputation of Lausanne, he got the Bernese, by 
dint of solicitation, to appoint him chief minister in that 
city, and thus, in consideration of his age and doctor's 
degree, obtained precedence over the tried and meritorious 
Viret. His ambition rose with his success. He had not 
been long in his new office when, in November, 1536, he 
repaired to Berne, to solicit the inspectorship over the clergy 
of the whole district. But the Bernese council now began 
to perceive the man's pride, and he was sent back with a 
sharp rebuke, and a command to submit himself, as a new 
comer, to the directions of Viret. Mortified by this repulse, 
and offended at the admonitions of Farel and Viret, who, 
knowing his immoral life, exhorted him to reform, Caroli 
began to meditate on schemes of vengeance.f Meanwhile 
he laid himself open to suspicion, by insisting in a sermon 
on the necessity of praying for the dead. For this Viret 
brought him before the consistory of Berne, by which he 



Ruchat, v. 17. 



f Kirchliofer, i. 222. 



GS 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



was ordered to retract his doctrine, in a humiliating 
manner. Although Viret and Calvin, who were also pre- 
sent, had interceded in his favour, the anger which had 
long been smouldering in his heart burst into a sudden 
flame. To the surprise of the assembly, he got up and 
charged Calvin, Farel, and Viret, with Arianism. Calvin 
immediately replied, " It is but a few days ago that I dined 
with Caroli; I was then his very dear brother, and he told 
me to make his compliments to Farel. He then treated as 
brethren those whom he now charges as heretics, and pro- 
tested that he wished always to live in brotherly love with 
us. But not a word did he say about Arianism. Where 
was then the glory of God, or the honour of the council of 
Berne ? Where the purity of the faith, and the unity of the 
Church ? One of two things : — you have either acted per- 
fidiously towards God and man, and wickedly betrayed the 
truth, or it must be clear to all that you are influenced by 
some other motive than what you pretend in bringing this 
accusation. If you have already twice administered the 
communion with an Arian colleague, where was your con- 
science ? If you had a single spark of true zeal or piety, 
would you have silently suffered your brothers and colleagues 
to reject the Son of God? Would you soil yourself with the 
infection of such an impiety by communicating with them ? 
But, supposing all this of no consequence, I demand how you 
know that I am infected with the Arian heresy ? I believe 
that I have given a pretty clear testimony of my faith, and 
that you will find no more ardent supporter than myself of 
the divinity of Jesus Christ. My works are in the hands of 
every body, and I have at least derived this fruit from them, 
that my doctrine is approved by all the orthodox churches. 
But you ! — what proof have you ever given of your faith, 
except, perhaps, in taverns, or other worse places ? For 
such are the haunts in which you have passed your time. 
Show us, then, the very passage on which you found your 



CHAP. II.] 



CALYIN ACCUSED OF ARIANISM. 



69 



accusation of Arianism ; for I will wash out this infamy, and 
will not endure to be unjustly suspected."* 

Caroli was overwhelmed by this spirited remonstrance ; and 
as Calvin continued to press him to bring forward his proof, 
he became confused, acknowledged that Calvin's writings 
were orthodox, and offered to retract his charge so far as he 
was concerned, provided he would not undertake to defend 
Farel. Viret likewise compelled Caroli to withdraw his 
charge against him ; but both he and Calvin declared that 
they should not rest satisfied with this retraction, unless their 
absent brother Farel were included in it. As Caroli mani- 
fested no disposition to comply, Calvin represented to the 
council that the matter was too serious to be passed over in 
that manner, and begged their assistance in requesting the 
council of Berne to appoint a synod, before which it might 
be examined. 

One was accordingly summoned to meet at Lausanne about 
the middle of March. Caroli entered the assembly like a 
lawyer with a bag full of briefs, and gave vent to the bitterest 
language, uttered with all the power of his lungs, and accom- 
panied with the most violent contortions.f Caspar Grossman 
(or Megander), who presided, having first required Viret to 
declare his sentiments on the subject of the Trinity, that 
minister handed in a written confession to be presented to 
the council of Berne. Caroli criticised this document, which 
he found too short and dry; and then proceeded to repeat 
aloud the Nicene and Athanasian creeds, using such extra- 
vagant gestures as set the whole assembly laughing. Calvin 
now rose and justified himself in a long discourse, in which 
he severely reprehended him. " Caroli," said he, " quarrels 
with us about the nature of God, and the distinction of the 
persons ; but I carry the matter further, and ask him if he 
believes in the Deity at all ? For I protest before God and 
man that he has no more faith than a dog or pig." He then 

* Ruchat, v. 22. f Calvin, Ep. 5. P. Henry, i. 181, note. 



70 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. ir. 



handed in a confession of faith, agreed upon between him- 
self and his colleagues ; but to which Caroli objected, because 
it did not contain the words Trinity or Person, and on account 
of the manner in which the name of Jehovah was used with 
regard to the Saviour.* He then required the Genevese 
ministers to subscribe the three creeds ; but Calvin, in the 
name of his brethren, refused ; not that they did not accept 
them, but that they would not show a deference to Caroli to 
which he was not entitled ; nor sanction the introduction of 
a sort of tyranny into the Church, by allowing the right of a 
private individual to compel another to declare his faith. 
The synod, after due examination, received the confession of 
the Genevese ministers, declared Caroli convicted of calumny, 
and expressed their opinion that he ought to be deposed from 
the ministry. 

Caroli appealed to Berne ; but Calvin and his colleagues 
were also acquitted by a synod held in that town towards the 
end of May. The Genevese ministers being asked whether, 
in their turn, they had any accusation to bring against Caroli, 
the latter thought it best to anticipate them by a free and 
public confession, in which he acknowledged the immoral life 
that he had led in France, the perfidy with which he had 
dissembled his religious opinions, and even thrown into the 
hands of the persecutors two young men of his acquaintance, 
of whose conduct and principles he inwardly approved. But 
Farel showed that even in this confession he had not laid 
bare the whole extent of his guilt.t 

Caroli was banished, and ordered before his departure to 
acknowledge in public the innocence of the ministers whom 
he had slandered. To avoid the latter part of this sentence, 
he fled early the following morning from Berne to Soleure, 
whence he addressed a violent letter against the ministers to 
the council of Lausanne. He then betook himself to France, 
and sought the protection of Cardinal Tournon, at whose 

* It is in Ruchat, v. 27, et seq. f Ruchat, v. 31. 



chap, it.] CAROLl's BANISHMENT AND APOSTASY. 71 



recommendation he proceeded to Eome. Here he handed in 
a paper to the Pope, in which he condemned the lives and 
doctrines of the Reformers, denouncing Farel as the chief 
heretic. The Pope received him hack into the Romish Church; 
released him from his concubine, as he called his wife ; 
restored him to his doctorate ; and gave him full power to 
enjoy benefices, and to exercise the functions of the priest- 
hood.* Nor was this the last apostasy of this extraordinary 
man ; whose frequent tergiversations, and the facility with 
which he was re-admitted, both by Protestants and Catholics, 
into the communions which he had so repeatedly deserted, 
show the anxiety felt by both sides in those times to secure 
the adhesion of any man at all distinguished by rank or 
learning, however profligate and worthless his character. 

It must, however, be confessed that Farel and Calvin's 
subsequent conduct with regard to the doctrine in question 
was not only amenable to the charge of obstinacy and self- 
will, but even of duplicity. Though the synod and council 
of Berne, to which Caroli had appealed from Lausanne, had, as 
we have said, acquitted them of the charge brought against 
them by Caroli, it had required that they should subscribe 
the Helvetic confession, drawn up at Basle in February, 
1536, and ratified by the Reformed cantons in the following 
May : in the 6th article of which we find the term Persons 
used with regard to the Trinity.f Yet, in spite of this sub- 
scription, Calvin and Farel still continued to object to the use 
of the words Trinity and Person, and even wished to force 
their views on some of the ministers of the district of Gex, 
who complained to the Bernese council of their proceedings. 
Hereupon, those magistrates addressed the following letter to 
Farel and Calvin : — 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, i. 229. 
f " VI. Voici les sentimens que nous avons de Dieu : Qu'il y a un seul vrai 
Dieu, vivant et tout-puissant, unique en essence, et qui dans cette unite a trois 
personnes" &c. See Ruchat, iv. 62. 



72 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



"Learned, discreet, dear, and good Friends, 

" We have been informed by some of our preachers of 
the district of Gex, and other places, that you still continue 
to inculcate your meaning and opinion of the nullity of the 
words Trinity and Person, in order to turn aside the aforesaid 
preachers from the manner of speaking of the Trinity usually 
received in the Church. And it has even come to our notice, 
that you, Calvin ! have written a letter to a certain French- 
man at Basle, stating that your confession had been approved 
of in our congregation, and been ratified by our ministers : 
which is not the fact, but the contrary; that you and Farel then 
consented and agreed to subscribe our confession, made in 
the same city of Basle, and to abide by it ; so that we are 
astonished that you should attempt to contravene it by such 
discourses, and beg of you to desist; otherwise we shall be 
constrained to provide some other remedy." 

" To our good friends, Master William Farel, preacher of 
the Church, and John Calvin, lecturer in the Holy Scriptures, 
at Geneva. 

"From Berne, this 13th of August, 1537."* 

It is certain, however, that Calvin's orthodoxy is beyond 
suspicion; for he had used the word Trinity in the first 
edition of his " Institutes," and declared the necessity of that 
of Person.f His conduct on this occasion seems therefore 
to have been adopted out of an ill-considered and inexcusable 
deference for his friend Farel, who was suspected of attach- 
ing too little importance to the authority of the Church 
with regard to this doctrine. And with this feeling Calvin 
appealed, not to his " Institutes " in proof of his orthodoxy, 
but to the Genevese Catechism, which had been the joint 
work of Farel, Yiret, and himself, and which had appeared 
a little before in French. This catechism, in which the 



* Ruchat, v., Pieces justificatives, No. 1. 



f P. Henry, i. 183, note. 



chap, ii.] CALVIN AND F abel's orthodoxy suspected. 73 



Trinity had been described as three persons in one essence, 
Calvin now turned into Latin, in order that the German 
Reformers might have an opportunity to read it, as it might 
serve to dissipate their suspicions. Why Farel should have 
agreed to this catechism, and, after agreeing, have acted 
contrary to it, appears inexplicable; unless he had been 
out-voted by his colleagues when it was drawn up. 

The opinion seemed to gain ground in other places be- 
sides Berne, that the doctrine of the Genevese ministers 
on the subject of the Trinity was not completely orthodox. 
Myconius at Basle, and Bucer at Strasburgh, had written to 
Bullinger and Melancthon about it in a way which betrayed 
their apprehension that the Arian heresy was about to be 
introduced into the Church.* These ministers, accompa- 
nied by Capito and Grynseus, repaired in the following 
September to Berne, where they drew up two papers : in the 
first of which they stated the grounds on which they agreed 
with the ministers of Berne respecting the use of the words 
Trinity and Person ; and in the second, explained the mean- 
ing of the term Jehovah. It was agreed that the former 
words were of great use to express the distinctions of the 
Trinity, and therefore they took upon themselves to use 
them, and to see that they were not laid aside in the Church. 
They condemned the abstaining from them as prepos- 
terous and superstitious ; yet they would bear with people 
who so abstained, and neither excommunicate nor anathe- 
matise them, but would do all in their power to convert 
them: though they would not find fault with the Bernese 
Church if they excluded from the ministry those who rejected 
these words. This was in fact a condemnation of Farel and 
Calvin. At the same time Bucer and Capito, the Strasburgh 
ministers, who in their negotiations with Luther and other 
Saxon divines at Eisenach in 1536, respecting a concordat on 



* Trechsel, Antitr.,i 162. 



74 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. II. 



the subject of the eucharist,* had incurred the suspicion of 
leaning too much to the Lutheran doctrine, and of thus 
departing from the articles of the Disputation of Berne, and 
of the Helvetic Confession, agreed to sign a confession 
drawn up by Calvin, Farel, and Viret, respecting the eucha- 
rist, after adding a few words to express more strongly their 
opinion that the elements were not mere symbols.f 

We will now revert to the efforts made by Farel and Calvin 
to establish their schemes of church government and disci- 
pline at Geneva. These proved very unpalatable to the 
great body of the people. As early as September, 1536, 
many of the principal citizens, accompanied by great num- 
bers of the lower classes, had demanded an audience of the 
council; before whom they protested that they could not 
endure the reproofs of the ministers, and that they wished 
to live in freedom. J The confession already mentioned, as 
drawn up by Farel and Calvin, was printed and distributed 
in the spring of 1537 : yet it did not seem to produce much 
impression, and was ill received on all sides. The article 
respecting excommunication, which put a great deal of 
power into the hands of the ministers, by enabling them to 
exclude the refractory from the sacrament, was particularly 
obnoxious. Far from giving way, however, the ministers 
pressed upon the government the necessity of establishing 
still more stringent rules for the maintenance of religion ; 
and unless this were done, Calvin, who was bound to the 
city by no particular ties, threatened to leave Geneva. § 
The oath taken by the people towards the close of the pre- 
vious year to observe the confession had been administered 

* See M. Adamus, VitaBuceri, p. 214. 

+ These papers are in Ruchat, v., Pieces justiftcatives, No. 2, and in Calvin, 
Epp. et Resp., Epp. 348—351. 

J " Quelques uns d'entre les principaux citoyens, et un grand nombre 
d'autres, ne pouvant point endurer les ministres qui les reprennent de leurs 
vices, protestent devant le conseil vouloir vivre en liberte." — Registres de la 
Repub., 4 Sept., 1536. Grenus, Fragm. Biogr. et Hist. % Ruchat, v. 55. 



CHAP. II.] 



SCHEME OF DISCIPLINE. 



collectively ; but now Calvin and his colleagues succeeded in 
persuading the government that it should be offered to them 
individually. This ceremony accordingly took place in St. 
Peter's church, on Sunday the 29th of July, 1537, and 
following days. After a sermon by Farel, the town secre- 
tary mounted the pulpit, and read the confession : after 
which the people were brought up by tens, and sworn to the 
observance of it by the syndics. Many, however, especially 
among the leading people, refused compliance with what 
cannot be designated otherwise than as an act of ecclesias- 
tical tyranny. One of their grounds of objection was that 
the Ten Commandments were appended to the confession; 
and it must be owned that it seems an absurd act to swear 
a man to the observance of a code of moral and religious 
duty. The council, however, were so devoted to the minis- 
ters, that at their instance they ordered the disaffected to 
leave the city. But they were too numerous to allow of this 
measure being carried into effect ; and the show of such an 
inclination, without the power of enforcing it, only rendered 
the malcontents more violent. 

Great, indeed, as well as sudden, were the alterations now 
attempted by the ministers. The transition was almost as 
abrupt and striking as if a man, after spending all Saturday 
night at an opera or masquerade, should, without any prepara- 
tion, walk into a Friends' meeting on the Sabbath morning. 
The minds of the people had not been prepared for it. Lively 
and excitable, the Genevese citizen had till recently indulged 
in an almost unbounded license. He loved dancing and music, 
and when the season allowed of it, enjoyed those amuse- 
ments in the open air. The doors of numerous wine-shops 
lay always invitingly open ; and in rainy weather, or to those 
whose dancing days were over, offered, in addition to their 
liquor, the stimulus of a game of cards. Numerous holi- 
days, besides Sundays, released the wearied tradesman from 
his warehouse or his shop, to seek recreation in the form 



76 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAP. Hi 



most agreeable to him. Masquerades" and other mummeries 
were frequent, but above all a wedding was the source of 
supreme excitement and delight. As the bells rung out a 
joj^ous carol, the bride repaired to church, surrounded by her 
female friends and companions, each adorned as fancy led, 
or as taste admonished that her charms might be set off to 
the best advantage; and, on returning home, the fete was 
concluded by feasting, music, dancing, and revelry. Worship, 
such as it was, showed the cheerful side of religion. No 
eternal fiat of reprobation haunted the sinner with the 
thoughts of a doom which it was impossible to escape. 
Purgatory opened the way to paradise, and purgatory could 
be abridged by the masses of the priest. Nay, religion shed 
its benign influence even over the temporal affairs of the 
devout Catholic ; and a few credos and pater nosters, a little 
holy water, or an offering at the shrine of the patron saint, 
was sufficient, or believed to be sufficient, to avert many of 
the calamities of life. The silver tone of the convent bells, 
echoing from the mountains, or stealing softly over the 
tranquil surface of the lake, preserved all within their sound 
from bad weather, ghosts, enchantments, and even Satan 
himself. But this magic power they possessed not unless 
the priest first consecrated them to the Virgin, their peculiar 
patroness, and, as it were, ruler of the air. Bells about to be 
hung were carried to the font dressed out like a child to be 
baptised. Sponsors stood for them, and in this guise, as in 
a real baptism, they were sprinkled with water, and smeared 
with oil and chrism. On these occasions costly dinners were 
given, and even in poor villages one hundred gold crowns 
were sometimes spent on the ceremony.* 

* Hottinger, ii. 640. Bells were generally inscribed with the words Ave Maria, 
or sometimes a supplicatory distich or two to the Virgin. If a consecrated bell 
happened to get broken, it was interred in the church like a human body. See 
an instance in the Registers of Geneva, Jan. 8th, 1535 (Grenus, Fragmens 
Historiques). Cenalis, bishop of Avranche, who wrote a book against the Calvinists, 



CHAP. II.] 



MANNEES OF THE GENEVESE. 



77 



Indulged with moderation, many of the relaxations above 
alluded to were innocent ; but it must be admitted that 
they were carried to excess in Geneva, and that the greatest 
dissoluteness of manners prevailed. Reckless gaming, drunk- 
enness, adultery, blasphemy, and all sorts of vice and wick- 
edness abounded. Prostitution was sanctioned by the authority 
of the state, and the public stews were placed under the 
superintendence of a woman elected by the council, and 
called the Reine du bordel. The registers abound with entries 
respecting the regulation of these Pandemoniums.* If the 
manners of the laity were corrupt, those of the clergy were 
as bad, or worse. The authentic documents just referred to 
bear frequent evidence of their profligacy. The canons of 
St. Peter's, whose office conferred upon them a share in the 
spiritual government of the city, were particularly notorious 
for their misconduct. They paraded their vices with so much 
effrontery, that in 1530 the Genevese refused to pay them 
the tithes, which were so unblushingly applied to the pur- 
poses of debauchery; and they were obliged to solicit the 
interference of Friburgh in order to obtain their money. f 
Their ignorance was on a par with their profligacy; and 
during the progress of the Reformation, the Genevese clergy 
publicly admitted before the council that they were not 
learned enough either to maintain or to refute the doctrine 
of the mass, and the authority of human traditions .J 

That these vices and disorders demanded a large measure 
of reform cannot be disputed. It was not, however, in 
human nature, that long confirmed habits like these should 
be extirpated all at once : they required rather to be gradually 
ameliorated by better education and example. Yet such 

seriously argued that bells were a sign of the true Church. See Hist, des 
Eglises Ref., i. 125. 

* See P. Henry, i. 152, and compare Spon, ii. 45. f Ruchat, ii. 303. 

t " Les pretres declarent par la bouche de Rolet du Pan qu'ils ne sont pas en 
etat ni assez savant pour soutenir ou pour reprouver la messe et les traditions 
humaines." — Registres, 24 Nov., 1535. Grenus, Fragm. Biogr., sub anno. 



78 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



was the task attempted by the evangelical ministers. Nor 
did they stop there; but in their zeal for reforming what was 
wrong they frequently overstepped the bounds of discretion, 
and confounded what was really innocent in the same 
anathema with what was fundamentally vicious. Cards and 
dancing, plays and masquerades, were absolutely prohibited, 
as well as the graver vices before enumerated. All holidays, 
except Sunday, were abolished, and that was observed with 
the strictness of the Jewish sabbath. Marriage was ordered 
so be solemnised with as little show as possible. Instead of 
the joyous fete it had hitherto been, it was converted into a 
purely religious ceremony, and sanctified by a sermon. If 
the bride or her companions adorned themselves in a fashion 
contrary to what was evangelised, they were punished with 
imprisonment.* The church bells were dismantled and cast 
into cannon ; f an d thus their cheerful carols converted into 
the harsh thunder of war. The citizens were strictly enjoined 
to attend the sermons, and to be at home by nine o' clock in 
the evening; and tavern keepers were ordered to see that 
their customers observed these regulations. 

It is not surprising that these unwonted severities should 
have excited many persons against the ministers. By degrees 
their number increased. Many of those who had sworn to 
the confession began to join them, and complained that they 
had been compelled to perjure themselves. They soon began 
to assume the shape of an organised party, calling them- 
selves " Brothers in Christ," and wearing green flowers as a 
badge. By February, 1538, they had increased so much, 
that at the annual election of syndics they got four of their 
cabal elected to that office, three of whom were not even 
members of the council. J 

* " Une epouse etant sortie dimanche dernier avec les cheveux plus abattus 
qu'il ne se doit faire, ce qui est d'un mauvais exemple, et contraire a ce qu'on 
leur evangelise, on fait mettre en prison sa maitresse, les deux qui l'ont menee, 
et celle qui Ta coiffee." — Rtgistres, 20 Mai, 1537. 

f Registres, 17 Juillet, 1534. + Ruehat, v. 57. 



chap. ii.] EEVOLT AGAINST THE DISCIPLINE. 



79 



The quarrel now began to assume something of a political 
aspect. The malcontents appealed to the discipline of Berne, 
which differed in several points from that of Geneva, and 
thus endeavoured to secure the influence of that city in 
favour of their views. The Bernese were naturally inclined 
to favour a party which thus made them the arbiters of the 
quarrel; and as the Reformation had been introduced at 
Geneva under their auspices, they not unreasonably thought 
that some deference should be paid to their authority on 
the points in dispute, especially as they did not involve any 
important questions of doctrine and faith. The contested 
points were these. At Berne they used stone fonts for baptism ; 
they celebrated four fetes during the year, viz., Christmas, New 
Year's Day, the Annunciation, and the Ascension, and they 
administered the sacrament with unleavened bread.* To all 
these the French ministers at Geneva were opposed; and 
especially Farel, who had, indeed, abolished the observance 
of these festivals before Calvin's arrival in Geneva.f The 
latter looked upon these things as in themselves indifferent ; 
and we shall find that subsequently, in order to avoid dis- 
putes, he adopted the use of unleavened bread. But if he 
did not lay much stress on the things themselves, he did on 
the authority of the clergy, which he thought might be 
seriously compromised by yielding these points, or by his 
differing from his colleagues respecting them ; and, therefore, 
he stood stiffly for their maintenance. But though these were 
made the ostensible points of dispute, it is probable that 
what was really desired by the Libertines, as the anti-evan- 
gelical party was called, was the milder discipline which 
prevailed at Berne. Thus we find that, in that town, brides 
were allowed to be married with flowing tresses ; a practice 
which, as we have seen, the Genevese ministers had abolished, 
to the displeasure of the Bernese. J In the year 1537, the 

* Spon, ii. 21. + See Calvin's letter to Haller, Ep. 118. 

J Ruchat, v. 58. 



80 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. ir. 



latter remonstrated with the Genevese respecting the dis- 
sensions which prevailed among them. The Genevese threw 
the blame on Farel, and, on the 15th of December, sent four 
deputies to Berne to confer on the matter. Farel also went ; 
and it was reported that on this occasion he represented his 
opponents as desirous of re-establishing the mass. There 
seems to be no foundation for this charge against him ; yet 
his adversaries used it as a pretext to render him still more 
obnoxious. 

On the other hand, the Genevese ministers inveighed 
loudly and bitterly from their pulpits against the supineness 
of the magistrates, and their negligence in maintaining 
order; nor, as the four syndics were now of the opposite 
party, is it improbable that there was some foundation for 
these complaints. At the same time the ministers themselves 
seem to have overstepped the bounds of decency and 
order. An event that occurred early in 1538 tended further 
to embroil matters, and to give them a still more political 
turn. A gentleman, named Montchenu, in the service of 
the King of France, came to Geneva, and endeavoured to 
persuade the Genevese to put themselves under the pro- 
tection of that monarch, by representing the Bernese as 
desirous of enslaving them, and of establishing a vidomne, 
or lieutenant of their own, at Geneva. Montchenu also 
undertook that Francis should fortify their town, transfer 
two fairs from Lyons to Geneva, and grant them some other 
privileges. The Bernese sent a deputy to Geneva on the 
25th of February, to contradict these reports of their 
designs; but before his arrival Montchenu had departed. 
How far Calvin and his colleagues were implicated in this 
affair does not appear; but that they were so in some degree 
we can hardly doubt, since we find the council deposing from 
office, seven members of their own body, for being connected 
with Montchemr's intrigue, and who had sided with the 
ministers. The occasion of this step was that letters from 



chap, ii.] FRENCH INTRIGUES — SYNOD OF LAUSANNE. 81 



Montchenu had been openly delivered to these councillors, 
whilst present at a general assembly on the 3rd of March.* It 
seems probable that Calvin and Farel may have inveighed 
against this exclusion of their friends from the council; for on 
the 11th of March we find an order issued forbidding them 
to meddle with politics, or to speak of the magistrates in the 
pulpit.f 

Meanwhile a synod which the Bernese had appointed to 
be held at Lausanne in mid-lent, for the purpose of settling 
the differences which prevailed in the Church, was fast 
approaching. Letters were sent inviting the attendance of 
Farel and Calvin, but on condition of their complying with 
the rites of Berne. If they would not do so, they were to 
be allowed, indeed, to attend the synod, but not to take 
any part in its proceedings ; and, if they had anything to 
state, they were to be heard, like strangers, after the sittings 
were closed. The church of Berne was rendered still more 
indisposed towards Calvin and Farel at this time by a change 
in its ministers. Calvin's friend, Megander, had been dis- 
missed, and the chief ministers now were Sebastian Meyer, 
and Peter Kuntzen (or Conz); men whom Calvin considered 
unfit for their office, and who, on their part, harboured a 
prejudice against him and Farel. Conz was a rough, boorish 
character, and a great admirer of Luther, under whom he 
had studied at Wittenberg. He had had a personal quarrel 
with Farel, in which he displayed the greatest violence. J 
He was one of the Bernese deputies at this synod, the others 
being Erasmus Bitter, also a minister, and two members of 
the great council, John Huber, and John Louis Amman. 

Though Calvin and Farel considered the conditions on 
which their presence was required at Lausanne somewhat 
extraordinary, they nevertheless attended the synod. The 

* Ruchat, v. 61. 

f " On defend aux predicateurs, et en particulier a Farel et a Calvin, de se 
meler de politique." — Registres, 11 Mars, 1538. Grenus, JPragmens Biographiques. 
Ruchat, v. 62. $ Trechsel, Antitr., i. 165. 



82 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. 



result of its deliberations* was to conform to the rites of 
Berne. To this decision Calvin and Farel refused to sub- 
mit. They applied to the president of the synod for time 
to deliberate; which being refused, they appealed to an- 
other synod to be held at Zurich in the ensuing April, on 
the subject of a union with the Lutherans. The council of 
Geneva, on the contrary, wrote to the Bernese that they 
were desirous of complying with them in the matter of the 
ceremonies. Hereupon the latter sent them a copy of the 
resolutions adopted by the synod, and requested them to 
confer with Calvin and Farel, who had objected to the three 
contested articles : viz., fonts, unleavened bread, and the 
four festivals. They also addressed the following letter to 
those ministers, dated the 15th of April, 1538 : — 

" Very learned and dear our singular good Friends 
and Brothers : 

' ' Having been made acquainted with the conclusion of 
the synod of Lausanne, as well as your speeches at that 
place, and partly also the consultation you have had with 
the ministers of Strasburgh and Basle, we take occasion to 
beg and admonish you in brotherly love, for the sake of 
peace and the advancement of unity, that you will be pleased 
to accede to the said conclusion, that the church of Geneva 
and ours, which are united as to the fundamental articles of 
faith, may also be conformable in ceremonies ; by doing 
which you will deprive our enemies of all opportunity of 
calumniating us. Wherefore, we beg and admonish you, 
earnestly and fraternally, to advise with your magistrates, 
to whom we have written concerning this affair, and to 
come to such a resolution that there may be no difference 
between us : taking into your consideration that the dis- 
agreement is not of such importance as can hurt truth, if 
you accept the three articles agreed on by all the ministers 



* Ruchat, iv. 459. 



chap, ii.] INFLEXIBILITY OF FAREL AND CALYIN. 



b3 



at the said synod ; to wit, to baptise at the font, to lise 
unleavened bread in our Lord's Supper, and to observe the 
four fetes. May it please you to condescend to this for the love 
of us, and for the sake of union between us, without suspend- 
ing the matter till the meeting which is to be held at Zurich. 
Meanwhile, we pray God give you the grace to live holily. 

" I/A.VOYER, AND COUNCIL OF BERNE.* 
" Datum 15 Aprilis, 1538." 

Nothing could be more conciliating, and even nattering, 
than for an independent government, like that of Berne, to 
address such a letter as this to two private ministers ; and as 
Calvin at least entertained no serious objection to the cere- 
monies in question, and as they had been unanimously 
confirmed by so large a body of the clergy, his resistance 
seems hardly justifiable. But in spite of this letter, as well 
as of the representations of their own government, he and 
Farel persisted in their views ; whereupon the Genevese 
council protested against them, and came to a resolution to 
conform to the rites of Berne. This step naturally increased 
the excitement, and emboldened the Libertine party. Troops 
of them paraded the town by night, insulted the ministers in 
their homes, and threatened to throw them into the Rhone. 
An indiscretion of Courault's hastened the crisis. The 
injunction not to meddle with politics, published on the 11th 
of March, did not seem to apply so particularly to himself, as 
to his colleagues. Notwithstanding his blindness and his 
age, he caused himself therefore to be led into the pulpit, 
where he spoke in a rude and insulting manner of the state 
of Geneva, comparing it with the kingdom of the frogs, and 
the citizens to rats which lived concealed in the straw.f He 
was immediately forbidden the pulpit ; but having violated 
this injunction, was arrested and imprisoned. Next day 



Ruchat, iv. 462. f P. Henry, i. 199. 

G 2 



84 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II. 



Farel and Calvin, attended by some of their friends, appeared 
before the council, and demanded his release. The council 
refused, and in turn directed the ministers to conform to the 
usages of Berne. Calvin and Farel requested the council to 
await the decision of the synod appointed to meet at Zurich ; 
and, on the latter refusing, not only declared that they would 
not conform to the Bernese ceremonies, but that they would 
not administer the communion on Easter Sunday, one of the 
appointed days, and which was now fast approaching ; alleging 
that they could not do so conscientiously in a city where such 
debauchery and insubordination prevailed. On the Saturday 
before Easter the council again sent for them, and exhorted 
them to use unleavened bread in the communion ; and as they 
again not only refused to do this, but even to administer 
that rite at all, the council forbade them to mount the 
pulpit.* Regardless of this prohibition, however, they both 
preached twice, Calvin at St. Peter's, and Farel at St. Gervais', 
without any communion ; though their sermons turned on 
the sacred nature of that rite, and the necessity that it should 
not be profaned. This created a great disturbance. Swords 
were even drawn,but the affair passed over without bloodshed.f 
On the following morning the council met and passed 
sentence of banishment on Farel and Calvin, with an order 
to quit the city in three days. On this being announced to 
them they exclaimed : " Very well ; it is better to serve God 
than man.^J Courault was also released from prison in 
order to accompany his colleagues into banishment. These 
sentences were confirmed by the council of Two Hundred, and 
by the general assembly, convened specially for that purpose. 
No sooner had they left Geneva, than the council ordered 
the decrees of the Lausanne synod to be published by sound 

* Spoil, ii. 23. f Ruchat, v. 65. 

J " On ordonne a Farel et a Calvin de se retirer dans trois jours puisqu'ils 
ne veulent pas obeir aux magistrats ; et ils respondent, 'A la bonne heure ; vaut 
mieux obeir a Dieu qu'aux hommes. 1 " — Registres, 23 Avril, 1538. 



CHAP. II.] 



CALVIN AND FAREL BANISHED. 



85 



of trumpet. The fonts were ordered to be re-erected, and on 
the following Sunday the communion was administered with 
unleavened bread. 

On quitting Geneva, Calvin and Farel repaired to Berne to 
lay their grievances before the council of that town, and to 
justify their conduct ; whilst Courault went to Thonon, to 
his friend Christopher Fabri, who procured him a situation 
at Orbe, where he died in the October following. The 
Bernese acted in this affair with moderation and good temper. 
However anxious they were that their usages should be 
observed, still, as they were things indifferent, they thought 
that the Genevese had pushed matters too far in banishing 
their ministers for non-compliance. Accordingly they wrote 
a letter on the 27 th of April to the Genevese council, in 
which they expressed their displeasure at their proceedings, 
and represented the scandal which they were calculated to 
produce. " If," said they, " we wrote to you to solicit your 
conformity with our ceremonies, we did it out of friendship 
towards you, and merely by way of request, and not with 
any view to constrain either you or your ministers in respect 
to things which are indifferent." But to this letter the 
Genevese paid no attention.* 

The synod of Zurich, which had been fixed for the 29th 
of April, was now on the point of assembling, and thither 
Calvin and Farel bent their steps. The proper object of this 
meeting was to effect a union with Luther. It was attended 
by the deputies of the Beformed cantons of Switzerland. The 
Basle deputies brought with themCapito and Bucer from Stras- 
burgh, whom Luther had charged to explain his sentiments to 
the Swiss. The deputies from Berne were the ministers Conz 
and Erasmus Bitter, and the councillor Bernard Tillmann. 

It does not belong to our subject to detail the proceedings 
of this assembly. Calvin and Farel seized the occasion to 
complain of the treatment which they had received at 



* Ruchat,v. 68. 



86 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. II. 



Geneva : they gave a deplorable account of the church there, 
and requested the protection of the synod not only for it, but 
for their own persons ; they acknowledged, at the same time, 
that they might have been too hot on some points, and declared 
their readiness to be advised. A debate ensued respecting the 
contested articles, on the occasion of Bucer delivering in a 
paper which Calvin had drawn up in Latin, in fourteen heads, 
as the basis on which he and Farel were willing to accommo- 
date matters. In this paper the disputed points were conceded, 
but with some trifling modifications, as will be seen from 
the following account of the substance of it : 1. Fonts are 
admitted, provided baptism be administered during church 
hours, and that the service be recited from the pulpit. 

2. Also the use of unleavened bread, provided it be broken. 

3. The four festivals observed at Berne are allowed, provided 
they be not too strictly enforced, and that they who wished 
might go to work after prayers. 4. The Bernese were to 
acknowledge that they did not find fault with the method 
hitherto used at Geneva as contrary to Scripture, but that 
their sole view was unity in ceremonies. 5. If the Genevese 
ministers were restored, they were to be allowed to exculpate 
themselves. 6. Calvin's scheme of church discipline was to 
be established. 7. The city was to be divided into parishes. 
8. Sufficient ministers were to be chosen to serve the different 

-districts. 9. The German method of excommunication was 
to be adopted; viz., the council was to choose from each 
parish certain worthy and discreet men, who were to exercise 
that power in conjunction with the ministers. 10. That the 
ordination of priests, by imposition of hands, was to be left 
entirely to the clergy. 11. That the Bernese were to be 
requested to come to an accommodation with them on two 
other points, viz., 12. First, that the Lord's Supper should 
be more frequently celebrated, and at least once a month. 
13. Second, that psalm-singing should form part of divine 
service. 14. That the Bernese should prohibit obscene 



chap, ii.] APPEAL TO THE SYNOD OF ZURICH. 



87 



songs and dancing, as their example was always pleaded by 
the Genevese in excuse.* 

The synod admitted the importance of these articles, and 
considered them a proof that the Genevese ministers were 
not actuated solely by obstinacy; but at the same time 
recommended moderation to them, and christian mildness 
in their dealings with a rude and uneducated people. t By 
the advice of Bullinger, the chief minister at Zurich, a letter 
was addressed to the Genevese in favour of the exiles ; and 
the Bernese were requested to support the application by 
sending an embassy to Geneva. The Bernese deputies who 
were present at the synod promised to exert themselves m 
their favour. Calvin and Farel now returned to Berne, 
bearing with them several letters of recommendation, both 
public and private. In that to the provost of Wattenwyl, 
Bullinger admits that they are over-zealous, but thinks it 
may be pardoned in favour of their learning and piety. J 

In Berne fresh trials awaited them. The treatment they 
experienced there is described in a joint letter from Farel 
and Calvin to Bullinger, dated in June, 1538. § After 
enduring much insolence, especially from Conz, a day was 
at length fixed for hearing them ; but when it arrived, they 
were told, after waiting two hours, that the ministers were 
too busy with consistorial causes to attend to them. In the 
afternoon they again attended, but found the ministers less 
prepared than before. They were now told that their articles 
required time for consideration. Although they plainly saw 
that they were purposely treated with indignity, they were 
forced to dissemble their feelings. "When the hearing at 
length came on, almost every syllable of their articles was 
objected to. On coming to the second, respecting the 
breaking of the bread, Conz flew into a violent rage, and 
abused them roundly. His colleagues could hardly hold 



* See P. Henry, i., Beil. 8. f Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, i. 246. 

t Ibid- § This letter will be found in Henry, L, Beil. 9. 



88 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap, m 



him down at his desk. Farel, who was hot a man to be 
daunted by trifles, was so impressed by the scene that he 
declared, long afterwards, that it never recurred to him 
without exciting his horror.* Bitter, however, seems to 
have supported the exiles. After a lapse of some days they 
were called before the council of Berne,, and required three 
times in one hour to renounce their articles. Instead of 
complying, they insisted on the necessity for uniformity; 
and when the Bernese replied, reasonably enough, that 
uniformity had been already adopted, they refused to change 
their opinions, on the ground that they should be sanction- 
ing thereby the proceedings of a worthless faction at Geneva. 
This reply, on the part of Calvin and Farel, makes us 
acquainted with the true motive of their conduct, which cannot 
but be characterised as stiff and obstinate. Nevertheless, 
the Bernese magistrates did not desert them. They sent 
Viret to Geneva to endeavour, by his sermons, to dispose 
the minds of the Genevese to a milder and more christian 
conduct. They also dispatched two councillors, and Erasmus 
Bitter, to accompany the exiles to Geneva, and to endeavour 
to get them restored. But at a little distance from that city 
they were met by a messenger, who forbade Calvin and Farel 
to enter. The Bernese ambassadors advised them to comply 
with this injunction ; and it was fortunate that they did so, 
as it was afterwards discovered that an ambush had been 
laid to intercept them a little without the town, and that 
the gate itself was occupied by twenty armed assassins.f 

The Bernese ambassadors, however, proceeded on their 
road, and were admitted to an audience of the Genevese 
council on the 22nd of May. They represented, in strong 
terms, to the Genevese the wrong they had done in banish- 
ing their ministers, and that their conduct had been con- 
demned by the synod of Zurich. They requested that 
the exiles might be permitted to appear; and that, on 

Kirchhofer, i. 247. + Farel and Calvin to Bullinger, apud P. Henry, 1. c. 



CHAP. II.] 



BERNE INTERCEDES IN VAIN. 



89 



making a suitable apology, they might be restored to their 
places, in consideration of the eminent services which Far el 
had rendered to Geneva. And they further represented that 
each of them had declared, before the council of Berne, his 
willingness to adopt the ceremonies in dispute. * But their 
intercession was in vain. The matter was, however, referred 
to a general assembly of the people, convened for the 26th 
of May. In this assembly Ludvig Ammann, one of the 
Bernese deputies, as well as Viret, made eloquent speeches 
in favour of the exiles. At first they seemed to make a 
favourable impression on the people, till one of the syndics 
took from his pocket the articles which had been drawn up by 
Calvin at Zurich, and read them aloud, making invidious com- 
ments as he proceeded. In these articles the exiled ministers 
had called the Genevese their church, and had mentioned the 
Bernese council without its proper title of horour. " See," 
cried he, " how they call the church theirs, as if they had 
already gotten possession of it, and with what contumely 
they treat their superiors ! But, above all, see at what a 
despotism they aim. For what is excommunication but a 
despotic power over the church?" Conz, the bitter enemy 
of Farel and his coadjutors, had sent these articles to Vandel, 
who boasted, before the embassy arrived from Berne, that 
he had got the condemnation of the ministers in his 
pocket. f His expectations were not deceived. The feeling 
excited against them was so strong, that, though a few 
wished to hear their defence, others drew their swords and 
demanded their death. The decree of banishment was 
confirmed almost unanimously. J 

The severity of this decision seems almost justified by 
the conduct of Calvin and Farel ; but the only parties who 
acted throughout with good sense and christian moderation 
were the council of Berne. 



* Farel and Calvin to Bullinger. 

f " Se venenum nobis letale ferre." — lb. Henry, 1. c. Kirchhofer, i. 249. 
X Ruchat, v. 85. 



90 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap, hi. 



CHAPTER III. 

Calvin proceeds to Basle — Accepts a ministry at Strasburgh — Writes to the 
church of Geneva — Attends a diet at Frankfort— His pecuniary difficulties — 
His marriage — Literary labours at Strasburgh — Caroli again — Diets of 
Hagenau and Worms — Diet of Ratisbon — State of parties at Geneva — The 
new pastors despised— Disorders — Negotiations for Calvin's restoration — 
He reluctantly returns to Geneva. 

On hearing the decision of the general assembly, Calvin 
and Farel, who had stopped at a little distance from Geneva, 
returned to Berne, and, after a short stay at that place, pro- 
ceeded to Basle. This journey they made on horseback in 
the most unfavourable weather; and in crossing a torrent 
swollen by the rains, were nearly swept away. The cordiality 
of their reception at Basle made them some amends for 
their past misfortunes. Calvin's old acquaintance, Grynseus, 
received him on terms of the most friendly intimacy ; whilst 
Farel took up his abode in the house of Oporinus the 
printer. Here they determined to abide till Providence 
should open out some new course to them. Viret's friend- 
ship induced him to pay them a visit, though they had 
begged him not to do so, lest he should expose himself to the 
risk of giving offence.* Through his influence, and that of 
Christopher Fabri, Farel was offered the ministry of Neuf- 
chatel, the inhabitants of which place gratefully remembered 
his former labours among them: but the troubles and dangers 
through which he had recently passed had damped even 
his ardour ; and at first he felt disinclined to accept the offer. 
He foresaw nothing but difficulties in his future course, 



* Kirchofer, ii. 3. 



chap, in.] CALVIN PEOCEEDS TO BASLE. 91 



and was disposed to dedicate himself to the more peaceful 
pursuits of literature. At the exhortation, however, of his 
friends, seconded by the representations of some of the 
German churches, he was at length induced to accept the 
offer made to him, but with the stipulation that he should 
be empowered to introduce his scheme of church discipline. 
He accordingly repaired in July to Neufchatel, after a 
residence of about seven weeks at Basle.* 

Meanwhile Calvin had received invitations from Bucer to 
become a minister of the church at Strasburgh. This office 
he at first refused, on the ground that it would oblige him to 
separate himself from Farel. Bucer, however, and probably 
others of the Reformed ministers, seem to have thought 
that the separation of the two friends would prove advan- 
tageous. Each was inclined to carry his zeal beyond the 
bounds of discretion ; and when united, they mutually en- 
couraged one another in a line of conduct which impartial 
observers did not look upon as beneficial to the church, f 
From some expressions which we find in a letter from 
Grynaeus, in answer to one which he had received from Calvin 
about this time, it would seem that the latter felt conscious 
that his conduct at Geneva had not been altogether justifiable ; 
and that a genuine or affected penitence was one of the 
reasons which he alleged for not accepting any other ministry 
at that juncture.} But Calvin's real sentiments at this time 
are best shown in a letter which he addressed to his former 
colleague Farel. In this he mentions that a person with 

* Kirchofer, ii. 4. 

f "Bucer advises that good care should be taken that we be not joined 
together ; as he suspects that we shall mutually impel one another in a course to 
which each of himself is more than sufficiently inclined." — Calvin to Farel, Aug. 
4th, 1538 (MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, i. 206). 

X " Even admitting that it is by your own grievous fault that the Church of 
Christ is thus ruined at Geneva ; yet that repentance will not be a pious one, by 
which, in the present dearth of competent ministers, you, who are adorned with 
so excellent gifts, not for your own benefit but for that of the Church, should 
reject the proposed ministry." — Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 8. 



92 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. III. 



whom lie was in correspondence was in hopes that one of 
their chief opponents at Geneva (probably Vandel), and the 
councillors who had been hitherto inimical to them, might 
perhaps be reconciled if they (Calvin and Farel) would first 
write them a letter expressing their good will. " This is so 
ridiculous/' he continues, " that Bucer himself makes no 
account of it. Even suppose such a thing could be hoped, 
yet how could we begin it ? Shall we endeavour to propitiate 
them as if we were the cause of the quarrel ? And though 
we should not decline to do so, what means will there be of 
wiping out offences? For my part I am of opinion that 
neither what is past can be amended, nor the future properly 
provided for, in that manner. For though we should confess 
before God and his people that it is partly through our 
inexperience, sloth, negligence, and error, that the church 
committed to us hath so miserably collapsed ; yet it is our 
duty to assert our innocence and purity against those by 
whose fraud, malice, dishonesty, and wickedness, such ruin 
hath been brought about. I will therefore willingly acknow- 
ledge, before God and all good men, that our ignorance and 
carelessness were worthy of such a punishment ; but I will 
never concede that that unhappy church hath fallen through 
our fault : for in the sight of God we are conscious of the 
reverse. Nor is there a man who can ascribe to us the 
smallest portion of blame. Moreover, who does not see that 
by this conduct we should become a laughing-stock in future ? 
For every one would immediately cry out, that provided we 
could get restored, we were willing to submit to any disgrace. 
God, I trust, will open out a better path for our return. 
For Bucer hath not yet left off writing to Geneva, whose 
authority they cannot well despise, though they will appear 
to despise it, unless they at length make some concessions 
to him. His ultimate hope is that even if he does not 
obtain a conference before next spring, he shall then at 
least be able to find some remedy. And perhaps the Lord 



chap. in. J HE ACCEPTS A MINISTRY AT STBASBUKGH. 93 



foresees that this is for the best, in order that meanwhile 
things may come to a greater state of maturity."* 

From this letter we perceive that Calvin was far from 
despairing of being ultimately restored to his ministry at 
Geneva, but that he had made up his mind not to return 
thither except on his own terms. His " penitence," there- 
fore, for his faults at Geneva, would hardly have been the 
cause of his refusing a ministry. Nobody will accuse either 
him or Farel of " ignorance and carelessness " in their con- 
duct, — the sole errors which he is ready to acknowledge. 
Their fault rather lay on the other side : in a desire to be 
wiser than their brethren, and in an over-care and anxiety that 
everything should be carried exactly according to their own 
wishes. As it appears, from the foregoing letter, that Bucer 
was interesting himself to obtain their restitution, it is 
probable that Calvin did not wish to settle in any other place 
while there was a prospect of his speedy return to Geneva ; 
and that when that was delayed, he was compelled, by 
pecuniary necessity, to accept the situation which had been 
offered to him at Strasburgh. By Farel's appointment to 
Neufchatel, his scruple about parting from his friend had 
been removed. But whatever might have been his motives, 
it is certain that in September, 1538, he had left Basle for 
Strasburgh. The former town he seems to have quitted 
precipitately. 

Strasburgh was at that time a free and imperial city. The 
chief ministers of the Reformed Church then settled there 
were, Bucer, Capito, Sturm, Hedio and Niger, by all of 
whom Calvin was received with open arms. The council of 
Strasburgh appointed him professor of theology, with a mode- 
rate salary. He likewise became pastor of a congregation of 
French refugees in that city, which gave him an opportunity 
to introduce his discipline in its fullest extent, f This 
church increased wonderfully under his superintendence. 



Ep. 9. 



f Ruchat, v. 86. 



94 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap, iul 



A great many French were attracted to Strasburgh by bis 
presence; not only youths, who came for the purpose of 
instruction, but men of mature age and extensive literary 
acquirements. * 

But Calvin's views were still directed towards Geneva. 
On the 1st of October he addressed a long epistle to his 
beloved brother, who composed the " Relics of the Dispersed 
Church of Geneva." f I n this he compares himself with 
Daniel, and justifies his conduct by the example of that 
prophet's conduct towards Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. 
" For this," says he, " hath been the conduct of the servants 
of God in their greatest straits; that, from whatever side 
evils might threaten them, they always turned their 
minds towards God and their own sins, so as to impute it to 
themselves that they were so treated by the Lord. For 
Daniel knew the wickedness of the king of Babylon, in 
oppressing and destroying God's people for the sake of 
gratifying his own selfish avarice, ambition, and lawlessness. 
He knew, I say, how wrongfully the Jews were treated by 
that tyrant : nevertheless, he imputes the chief cause to 
himself and his household (Dan. ix. 5), as he was convinced 
that the Babylonians could have done nothing against them 
by their own power. Therefore he properly begins by a 
confession as well of his own sins as of those of the king 
and people. But if so great a prophet humbled himself 
in that manner, let us consider how much reason we have 
to imitate him. As to what concerns myself personally," 
he continues, "if I have to plead my cause against the 
wicked slanderers who would oppress me, I can say, not 
only that my conscience acquits me before God, but that I 
have abundant means to purge myself before the whole world. 
And this I showed sufficiently, when I offered to give an 

* Sturm, Antipappus, iv. 21., quoted by Henry, i. 226. 

f Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 10. It will be found in the original French in 
Ruchat, v., App. 4. 



chap, in.] HE WRITES TO THE CHURCH OF GENEVA. 95 



account of my conduct before all, and therefore even before 
my adversaries. For surely lie must be convinced of bis 
right who offers himself for trial in such a manner that, 
except in his certainty of that right, he must be in all 
other respects at a disadvantage. But by what I said 
before of God's judgment, I mean that I acknowledge I 
am not undeservedly thus humiliated by him, in order that 
I may be reminded of my ignorance, imprudence, and other 
infirmities. These are my sentiments concerning myself; 
and I thus acknowledge my defects before God's Church. 
Nor by these animadversions on my own conduct shall I 
render the cause of my adversaries superior to my own. 
For neither did Daniel intend to exonerate Nebuchadnezzar 
when he ascribed the destruction of the Jews to their own 
sins, though it proceeded from his tyranny. On the con- 
trary, that rather tended to heap reproach upon the tyrant, 
since it thus appeared that he was but God's scourge, and 
that Satan and his satellites occupied the first place/' 
There seems to be a good deal of pride in this sort of 
humiliation. 

In the spring of 1539 Calvin was induced, by Bucer and 
Capito, to attend the diet assembled at Frankfort, whither he 
was accompanied by Sturm and other friends.* The German 
Protestant princes were assembled in that town for the purpose 
of considering the state of religion, and the expediency of 
peace with the emperor. It was at that time part of Charles's 
policy to foment the divisions between the Lutheran and 
Swiss churches, from the latter of which he also wished to 
detach the Reformers of Strasburgh; and one of Calvin's 
motives for this journey was to watch over the interests of 
those who adhered to the Swiss confession. He was also 
desirous of making the personal acquaintance of Melancthon, 
who was to attend this diet, and of conferring with him on 

* The particulars of this journey will be found in two letters to Farel in 
March, 1539, Epp. 12, 13. 



06 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. hi. 



the prospects of the Protestant Church. He had previously- 
forwarded some propositions respecting the eucharist to 
Melancthon, with a view to discover if there was really any 
difference between them on that subject. His interview 
with that Reformer at Frankfort convinced him that their 
sentiments, as to that doctrine, entirely coincided.* Melanc- 
thon, however, never openly departed from Luther's views, 
either from a love of peace, or rather, perhaps, because 
Luther's vehement temper held him in constant awe and 
subjection; and as the majority of the German Protestants 
were likewise favourable to Luther's doctrine, there appeared 
but little prospect of an agreement between them and the 
Swiss churches. During this interview Calvin remonstrated 
against the numerous ceremonies still retained by the 
Lutherans. Melancthon pleaded the necessity of the case ; 
and Calvin did not see any reason why this circumstance 
should prevent them from forming a common league for the 
defence of Protestantism. t 

At this diet the Protestant princes showed more firmness 
and resolution than had been expected of them. Even the 
Elector of Saxony, who had hitherto been for postponing 
matters, expressed an inclination to declare war against 
the emperor; and such, at first, appears to have been the 
general feeling of the assembly. But the arrival of the 
Count Palatine, and Joachim of Brandenburgh, bearing letters 
from Charles, as also of a Spanish prelate who acted as 
his ambassador, all of whom were invested with powers 
plenipotentiary to treat for a peace, turned the scale the 
other way. As both Joachim and the Count Palatine, 
and especially the former, were regarded as favourable to 
the Protestants, their mediation was viewed with the less 
suspicion. Their most effective argument was the danger 

* " Testatus est mihi (Melancthon) nihil se aliud sentire quani quod meis 
verbis expressissem." — MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, i. 244. " De ipso nihil dubita 
quin penitus nobiscum sentiat." — Ep. 12. f Ep. 15. 



chap, in.] HE ATTENDS A DIET AT FRANKFORT. 97 



which impended from the Turk, who would be ready to in- 
vade Germany when he saw it torn by intestine dissensions. 

Ambassadors from England attended this diet to invite 
Melancthon thither to further some reforms then in pro- 
gress; but though the German princes were disposed to 
send some legation to England, it was suspected that the 
softness of Melancthon's temper would disqualify him for 
the office. In one of his letters * from Strasburgh, Calvin 
describes the miserable state of the Reformation in England. 
" Henry himself," he says, " is but half instructed. He pro- 
hibits the marriage of his clergy by the severest penalties 
short of deprivation. He uses daily masses, and retains 
the seven sacraments ; and thus he has a mutilated gospel, 
and a church stuffed with trifling observances. He had 
prohibited all translations of the Scriptures, and had re- 
cently issued a proclamation to forbid the reading of them. 
Nay, he had even burnt a just and learned man for denying 
the real Presence." In such a state of things, and where so 
many compliances would be expected, Calvin was of opinion 
that even Bucer would be an unfit person to send into 
England, since his zeal for spreading the gospel was such that 
he was content to overlook some not unimportant points, 
provided he could carry the main ones. 

Calvin seems to have staid but a short time at Frankfort, 
and to have quitted that city before the diet was concluded. 
Bucer remained behind. Some letters to Earel, written from 
Strasburgh in April and May, 1539, show Calvin's multi- 
farious occupations at this time.f He was now preparing 
the second edition of his " Institutes " for the press. In the 
first of these letters he says, " I do not recollect a day in 
which I was more overwhelmed with business of various sorts. 
A messenger was waiting for the first portion of my book, so 
that I had to revise about twenty pages ; add to this that I 
was to lecture, to preach, to write four letters, to dispatch 



* Ep. 13. 



f See Epp. 14, 15,16. 

H 



98 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. nr. 



some controversies, and to answer more than ten appellants. 
You will, therefore, excuse the brevity and inaccuracy of this 
reply." Negotiations had been still going on for his return 
to Geneva ; but Calvin was now beginning to give them up 
as hopeless. In the second of these letters he says : " What 
Talearis wrote about our return is not, I think, in progress, for 
I have heard nothing from him since." He states that he was 
losing all anxiety about it, and expresses his opinion that 
Farel and himself should return together : for that otherwise 
he (Calvin) would seem to be restored through favour, and 
that what was due to the cause had been conceded to the 
person. He also expresses an apprehension of the difficulties 
which would await him there. He found some trouble even 
at Strasburgh in enforcing his discipline ; but at Geneva 
he thought it would be overwhelming. 

This correspondence affords a glimpse of Calvin's pecuniary 
difficulties at this time. From his letter to Farel, in March, 
we find that he was in debt to him, and without any 
immediate prospect of repaying a single penny.* In a sub- 
sequent letter we find a still more deplorable account of his 
embarrassments, which had been increased by the expenses 
of his journey to Frankfort. These, however, he expected 
would be defrayed by what he was to receive from Wendelin, 
the bookseller, who was printing his book. But for the means 
of his ordinary subsistence till the ensuing winter, he could 
look only to the sale of his library, which was still at Geneva ; 
and beyond that period he must rely on Providence. Of the 
many friends he had formerly had in France, not one had 
offered him a penny, except a certain Louis ; whose offers of 
assistance were, however, accompanied with a sort of exhor- 
tation to recant, and the appellation of a renegade from the 
Church ! f We may imagine the effect of such advice on a 
mind like Calvin's. In another letter to Farel, dated on the 
27th of July, 1539,J he relates the failure of an attempt to get 



* Ep. 12. 



+ Ep. 15. 



MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, i. 405. 



chap, m.] HIS PECUNIAKY DIFFICULTIES. 



09 



his salary as theological lecturer increased; in consequence 
of which he instructs Farel to sell his books. They were not 
to be sold under nine batzen each, except anybody should 
take a quantity, when they might go for eight ; a sum equal 
to about a shilling. This must have been a bitter step for a 
literary man like Calvin, and could only have been wrung 
from him by hard necessity. The straits to which he was 
reduced at this time may be inferred from a letter which he 
addressed some years afterwards to Myconius,* in which he 
relates that a certain Alberge had visited him when at Stras- 
burgh and borrowed, or rather, he says, extorted, twenty batzen 
from him (about half-a-crown) : but as he had sold his books, 
and as his funds were completely exhausted, he was obliged 
to borrow this paltry sum in order to lend it to Alberge, by 
whom he got completely cheated. 

Yet in spite of the distressed state of his pecuniary affairs, 
Calvin was at this time looking for a wife to help him to bear 
his burthens. Calvin in love is indeed a peculiar phase of 
his history. He had now arrived at the sufficiently mature 
age of thirty ; and as his imagination had never been very 
susceptible, so, in the business of choosing a helpmate, he 
was guided wholly by motives of prudence and convenience. 
In fact he left the matter entirely to his friends, just as 
one would buy a horse or any other thing ; giving them 
instructions as to the sort of article he wanted. Writing to 
Farel on the 19th of May, 1539, he says : " I will now speak 
more plainly about marriage. I know not if any one 
mentioned to you her whom I wrote about before the 
departure of Michael; but I beseech you ever to bear in 
mind what I seek for in a wife. I am not one of your 
mad kind of lovers who doat even upon faults when once 
they are taken by beauty of person. The only beauty 
that entices me is that she be chaste, obedient, humble, 
economical, patient; and that there be hopes that she will 



* Ep. 54, 
H % 



100 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. Ill, 



be solicitous about my health. If therefore you think it 
expedient that I should marry, bestir yourself, lest some- 
body else anticipate you. But if you think otherwise, let 
us drop the subject altogether."* In fact Calvin's wretched 
health, even at this period of his life, led him to seek 
for a nurse rather than a wife. From another letter to Farel, 
dated the 6th of February, 1540,f it appears that a young 
German lady, rich, and of noble birth, had been proposed 
to him. Both the brother of the lady and his wife were 
anxious that Calvin should espouse her. The latter, however, 
scrupled on two grounds ; because the lady was unacquainted 
with French, and because he was afraid that she might 
think too much of her birth and education. If the marriage 
was to take place he insisted that his bride should learn 
French ; but on her requiring time to consider of this, 
Calvin dispatched his brother and a friend to fetch him 
home another lady, and congratulates himself on the escape 
he has had. He speaks in high terms of his fresh choice. 
Matters had gone so far that he invited Farel to come and 
officiate at his wedding, which was to take place before the 10th 
of the following March. It appears, however, from another 
letter to the same friend, dated on the 21st of June, 1540, J 
that this match, of which he had thought so highly, was also 
broken off. His brother Anthony and another friend had 
actually arranged the marriage; but a few days after their 
return to Strasburgh, Calvin heard some particulars regarding 
the lady which induced him to send his brother back to cancel 
the contract. After these failures Calvin expresses a doubt 
whether he should prosecute his matrimonial project any 
further. Soon afterwards, however, by the advice of Bucer, 
he married Odelette or Idelette de Bures, the widow of an 
Anabaptist at Strasburgh, whom he had converted. Idelette 
is represented as a fine woman; but it does not appear 
whether she brought her husband any money. According 



* Ep. 16. t MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, i. 408. + lb., p. 409. 



CHAP. III.] 



HIS MARRIAGE. 



101 



to the customs of the times Calvin wished his wedding to be 
celebrated with all possible solemnity. He invited the con- 
sistories of Neufchatel and Valengin, who sent deputies. 
Idelette had several children by her former marriage, in 
whom Calvin seems to have taken some interest. By Calvin 
she had only one child; a son, who died shortly after his 
birth.* 

Calvin's position at Strasburgh afforded him a good deal 
more leisure for literary pursuits than he could command at 
Geneva. The post he filled there was but a subordinate one, 
and the routine of his duties regular and defined ; nor had 
he to struggle, as at Geneva, for the maintenance of a 
church, and of a system of discipline, violently opposed from 
many different quarters at once. It was during this period 
that his theological studies were most successfully prose- 
cuted; and those exegetical works begun whose excellence 
has been less contested than that of some of his other pro- 
ductions, and on which his literary fame chiefly rests. We 
have already adverted to the second, or perhaps, more pro- 
perly speaking, the third edition of his " Institutes," which 
he published at Strasburgh in 1539. This contains every 
thing essential that is to be found in the last edition 
published by Calvin himself at Geneva, in 1559, from the 
press of Stephanus; though the latter is much superior in 
clearness and method, f We have already remarked, as a 
trait in Calvin's character which strongly contrasts with the 
open boldness of Luther, that he published this edition 
under the pseudonym of Alcuin, which forms an anagram of 
his name. This work shows that he was still occupied in 
his banishment with his scheme of church discipline, the 
whole of which is found developed in the eighth chapter. J 

* Some Roman Catholic writers have represented Calvin's marriage as 
altogether barren, by the curse of God ; but this is not strictly correct. Calvin 
himself says, in his " Answer to Baudouin :" " The Lord gave me a son, but soon 
deprived me of him : and this my want of children Baudouin reckons among my 
disgraces." — Opera, viii. 320 A., Amst. ed. f P. Henry, i. 286. J lb., p. 220. 



102 



LIFE OF JOHX CALYIK". 



[chap. III. 



In the same year he also published at Strasburgh his 
Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, a work 
bearing the distinguishing marks of his exegetical style — 
clearness and brevity. Calvin's mind was essentially logical. 
Never, perhaps, has there existed so ardent a theologian 
with so little tincture of superstition or enthusiasm. Hence 
he would never undertake a commentary on the Revelations ; 
and Bodin relates, that, on being asked his opinion of that 
book, he replied that he was totally ignorant of the meaning 
of that obscure writer. * This is the more remarkable in an 
age when the best intellects had not entirely succeeded in 
freeing themselves from the trammels of superstition. On 
the other hand, this turn of mind sometimes led him to 
interpret Scripture too strictly and literally, and to turn into 
demonstration points which must be left to faith, or even to 
speculation. 

It was also in 1539 that Calvin published his answer to 
Cardinal Sadolet. That prelate, who had been for many 
years Bishop of Carpentras, in Dauphine, and who had been 
recently presented with a cardinal's hat, was a man of 
irreproachable life, and considerable literary attainments. 
He, like Contarini and others, was one of those moderate 
churchmen who, whilst they admitted the necessity for some 
reform, were unwilling to give up the essential tenets of 
Romanism ; and who, in the pontificate of Leo X., had founded 
the Oratory at Rome, for purposes of mutual edification. 
The expulsion of the ministers from Geneva seemed to present 
a favourable opportunity for winning back that important 
city to the bosom of the Church. Accordingly, Sadolet, in 
compliance with the wishes of the Pope, addressed a letter 
to the council and burgesses of Geneva, dated on the 18th 
of March, 1539. Calvin, at the beginning of his reply, pays 
many compliments to Sadolet's learning and eloquence : but 
for any force of argument we might search the cardinal's 



* See Bayle, Calvin. 



chap, hi.] HIS LITERARY LABOURS AT STRASBURGH. 



103 



letter in vain. The greater part consists of insinuations 
respecting the motives of the Reformers. He charges them 
with being actuated by envy in their attacks upon the 
Romish priesthood, because, with all their industry and 
learning, they had not succeeded in obtaining a good place 
in the Church. With more than questionable taste he in- 
troduces one of the leaders of the Reformation making this 
confession before the throne of God. Grave as this charge is, 
he farther insinuates that he had kept back much heavier 
ones respecting the ambition, the avarice, the love of popular 
applause, and the secret fraud and malice of the Reformers. 
That the latter were too often amenable to some of these 
charges must be granted; but it is evident that Sadolet, 
feeling the weakness of his cause, strives to divert the at- 
tention of his reader from the real merits of the case, and 
to supply the deficiency of his arguments by attacking the 
character of his opponents. He concludes his letter with the 
stock Roman Catholic argument, which was always em- 
barrassing to the leaders of the Reformation; namely, the 
variety of sects into which its followers were split, whilst 
truth is, and can be, only one. * 

The Genevese council acknowledged the cardinal's letter 
shortly, but politely, t Although it was not particu- 
larly formidable, nobody at Geneva was found capable of 
answering it; and Calvin therefore took up his pen. His 
reply is considered a good specimen of his Latin style. The 
cardinal's injudicious charges afforded an excellent opportu- 
nity not only for defence, but retaliation. In answer to the 
imputation of avarice and ambition, Calvin maintains that in 
the bosom of the Romish Church he could easily have attained 
the summit of his wishes — literary ease, with a tolerably 
honourable station. He defends Farel on the same grounds, 
but with somewhat more warmth than he does himself. He 

* This letter, together with Calvin's reply, will be found translated in the first 
volume of the Calvin Society's publications, f Spon, ii. 27. 



104 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II 



insists very strongly on a prominent tenet of his own theologi- 
cal system, — that everything must be subordinate to the glory 
of God • and rebukes the cardinal for making a man's own 
salvation a higher consideration than that of God's honour. 

In 1540, Caroli, who did not find that a second return to 
the Roman Catholic Church had brought him the preferment 
which he expected, again appeared in Switzerland. He took up 
his abode at Bonneville on the lake of Bienne, and was seek- 
ing to obtain another ministry in the Reformed Church. As he 
showed some signs of humiliation and repentance, Farel inter- 
ceded for him with the council of Berne, who were highly 
indignant at his former clandestine flight in order to avoid 
the sentence which they had passed upon him. But notwith- 
standing all FareFs exertions in his favour, the Bernese 
council caused him to be arrested, and tried ; and upon his 
conviction, sentenced him to ask pardon of God, and of all 
the ministers present, as well as of themselves ; and condemned 
him to pay the expenses of the suit, and a fine of sixty sous.* 

After this, Farel advised Caroli to retire to Basle, and live 
there in such a manner as might enable him to regain the 
esteem and confidence of those whom he had offended. 
Instead of doing so, however, he went to Montbelliard, in the 
hope of obtaining an appointment from Count George of 
Wurtemburg ; but Toussain (Tossanus),the minister there, saw 
that his character remained unchanged, and dismissed him. 
He now went into the Valengin, and renewed his correspond- 
ence with Farel; but not succeeding in his application to him, 
repaired to Strasburgh, to see what he could do with Calvin. 
Calvin consulted Farel, the substance of whose advice was, 
that Caroli should be put in a way of getting his living, but 
that he should not be intrusted with a church till he had 
proved the sincerity of his conversion. Being thus again 
disappointed, he proceeded to Metz, whence he wrote a 
vapouring and reproachful letter to Calvin ; but, nevertheless, 



* Ruchat, v. 132. 



CHAP. III.] 



CAEOLI AGAIN. 



105 



expressed a desire to be reconciled with him and Farel if they 
would procure him a benefice. Calvin's answer, dated on the 
10th of August, 1540,* is written with temper and moderation. 
He represents to Caroli that neither he nor Farel had any 
churches at their command ; and that even if they had, they 
should not be justified in giving him one, unless they knew 
that he agreed with them in doctrine. Thus frustrated in 
his plans, Caroli became once more a Roman Catholic; in 
which character we shall presently see him again upon the 
scene. 

In June, 1540, we find Calvin attending a diet held at 
Hagenau, whither, however, he seems to have gone rather 
by way of relaxation and amusement, than for business. A 
letter addressed from this place to Monsieur de Taillis, in 
which he describes the state of parties, shows that he fully 
penetrated the designs of the different German powers. f At 
Hagenau it was resolved that a diet should be summoned to 
meet at Worms in the following November, for the purpose 
of settling religious differences. At the instance of Sturm, 
Calvin was appointed to attend this meeting as a delegate 
from the city of Strasburgh.J It was thought that his 
-P knowledge of French would be of assistance; but in any 
1 view, the appointing him to such an office is a strong proof 
of the esteem in which his abilities were held at Strasburgh. 
The managers of the conference on the part of the Roman 
Catholics were Eck, Gropper, and Pflug ; on that of the 
Protestants, Melancthon, Bucer, and Pistorius. Cardinal 
Granvella presided. On the 15th of January, 1541, before 
any resolutions had been arrived at, Granvella announced to 
the meeting the emperor's desire that the conference should 
be broken off, to be renewed with more solemnity at the 
diet appointed to meet at Ratisbon in the ensuing spring. § 

* Ep.20. Calvin subscribes himself "ex animo tibi amicus." 

f See P. Henry, i. 260. J Sturm, Antipappus, apud Henry, i. 387. 

§ Sleidan, Be Statu, &c, lib. xiii., p. 221. 



106 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAP. Uli 



At Worms Calvin became acquainted with Caspar Cru- 
ciger, a professor of Wittenberg, and one of the most learned 
men of that learned age. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, are 
said to have been as familiar to him as his native tongue ; * 
he had assisted Luther in his translation of the Bible ; he 
was well skilled in medicine and botany, and a first-rate 
mathematician and astronomer. As he was an adept in short- 
hand, he acted as secretary to the conference, and during 
its progress often prompted Melancthon in his answers to 
Eck. In a private conversation which he had with Calvin, 
he is said to have approved of the latter' s doctrine respecting 
the eucharist. In an argument on the same subject into 
which Calvin entered at Worms with the dean of Passau, 
Melancthon was so struck with his learning and eloquence 
that he dubbed him with the title of " the Theologian."t 

It was at Worms that Calvin, for the first and only time 
in his life, became poetical. In order to greet the new year 
in the city, which had been the scene of one of the most 
remarkable passages in Luther's life, Calvin produced an 
Epinicion, or song of triumph, a Latin poem, consisting of 
nearly a hundred and thirty elegiac lines. The subject of 
it is the expected victory of Christ over the Pope. The 
Redeemer is described as accomplishing this without the 
use of arms, and is introduced as in a Roman triumph; 
whilst the more eminent of the Roman Catholic champions, 
as Eck, Cochlseus, and others, follow his chariot wheels, 
bound and abashed. The following lines may serve by way 
of specimen. 

" Annon mirifica est regis victoria Christi 

Nostra quod intrepido corda vigore fovet ? 
Ergo triumphali redimitus tempora lauro 

Quadrijugi emineat conspicuus solio : 
Edomiti currum positoque furore sequantur 

Qui cum sacro ejus nomine bella gerunt. 



* M. Adamus, Vita Crucigeri, p. 193. 



f P. Henry, i. 368, 



chap, m.] DIETS OF HAGENAIT, WORMS, RATISBON. 107 



Eccius hesterno ruber atque inflatus Iacclio 

Prsebeat hue duris terga subacta flagris : 
Hue caput indomitum subdat, verum ante recepta, 

Qua semper caruit fronte, Cochlseus iners," &c. 

His poetry is not of a kind to make us regret that he wrote 
no more. 

Calvin had not been long returned to Strasburgh when he 
again left that city to attend the adjourned diet at Ratisbon, 
the proceedings of which began on the 5th of April.* 
This assembly seemed to open under the most favourable 
auspices. The Protestants were desirous of union; it was 
the emperor's policy to promote concord, in order that he 
might be enabled to employ the whole force of the empire 
against Turkey and France ; and even the Pope, Paul III., 
was disposed to make concessions, as appeared from his 
choosing Cardinal Contarini as his legate. f Contarini, a 
patrician and senator of Venice, like Sadolet, and other 
Roman Catholic prelates of moderate views, had, as we have 
said, belonged to the society called The Oratory of Divine 
Love, which was for making many reforms in the Church, 
and which, on the important doctrine of justification, had 
approximated very closely to the views of Luther. He had 
formed one of the council which Paul, with the view of 
mitigating the odium he had incurred by making his nephew 
cardinal, had appointed, in 1537, to examine without favour 
into the abuses in the Popedom. Their report embraced 
a long list of things which required amendment, though it 
does not appear that their suggestions were adopted. J By the 
German and Swiss Reformers, however, this counter-reforma- 
tion was regarded with suspicion. Luther and Sturm wrote 
books against it ; and the former caused a picture to be 
painted, in which the Pope was represented, surrounded by 
his cardinals, with foxes' tails. Thus, with the usual fate of 

* Sleidan, p. 224. 
f See Ranke's Hist, of the Popes, i. 154 (Mrs. Austin's translation). 
J The report will be found in Sleidan, lib. xii., p. 192, et seq. 



108 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. III. 



all moderate men, lie only succeeded in incurring the sus- 
picion of both parties ; for the Pope and his college were 
dissatisfied with his not showing a more determined front 
to the Lutherans during this meeting.* 

Calvin, with his usual distrust of all such negotiations, 
had from the first expressed no hopes of a satisfactory result. 
His forebodings were founded on the characters of the Roman 
Catholic managers, who were the same as those appointed 
at Worms. In a letter to Earel, from Ratisbon, he thus 
describes them : u Julius Pflug possesses eloquence and 
knowledge of the world, but is a poor theologian ; a courtier, 
moreover, and ambitious, though in other respects of irre- 
proachable life. Deficient in the requisite knowledge and 
firmness, and warped sometimes by his ambition, you may 
infer how little is to be expected from him. Gropper goes 
somewhat further ; yet he too belongs to that class of men 
who would make a compromise betwixt Christ and the world. 
Still he is a man whom one can confer with to some purpose. 
Eck you know. Nobody doubts but this Davus will spoil 
all by his officious meddling. I should not despair ; but 
I cannot help thinking on Worms. Truly, my expecta- 
tions will be deceived if we arrive at any result worth 
mentioning." f 

Dr. Eck, who was a native of Ingoldstadt, was for a long time 
one of the chief props of the Eoman Catholic cause in Ger- 
many. He was regarded by the Reformers with the greatest 
disgust and aversion, as is manifest from this letter of Calvin's, 
as well as from his verses before quoted. Petrus Mosellanus, 
in a letter to Pflug, describing the disputation at Leipsic 
between Luther, Carlostadt and Eck, in June, 1519, gives 
the following account of his person and character: "Eck 
is tall and stout, with a sonorous and truly German voice, 
fit for a tragic actor, or rather for a public crier ; yet rough 
rather than articulate. He is so far from preserving that 



Sleidan, lib. xiv., p. 224. 



f MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, i. 364. 



CHAP. III.] 



DIET OF RATISBON. 



109 



suavity of the Roman countenance, so praised by Fabius 
and Cicero, that, from his whole appearance, you would take 
him for a butcher, or Carian soldier, rather than a theologian. 
As to his intellect, he hath a wonderful memory, which, if 
it were supported by a corresponding understanding, he 
would be perfect. But he wants quickness of apprehension 
and acuteness of judgment, without which all his other 
endowments are useless. This is the cause why, in disputa- 
tion, he heaps up, without choice or discrimination, so many 
arguments, so many passages from Scripture, and other 
authorities, without perceiving how frigid most of them are, 
how irrelevant to the matter in hand, — or lastly, how obscure 
and sophistical. His only aim is to obfuscate his auditors 
by a copious farrago, and so to carry off a show of victory. 
To this must be added an incredible audacity, concealed, 
however, with wonderful slyness."* Yet Melancthon, in a 
letter to CEcolampadius, respecting the same disputation, 
reports more favourably of Ecfs powers, and states that his 
great and various intellectual qualities had excited the 
admiration of most of his auditors, f Mug, who was really 
a man of worth, was a friend of Erasmus, who speaks of him 
in the highest terms, and is loud in praise of his Latin 
style. J He was one of the councillors of George, Duke of 
Saxony, and subsequently Bishop of Naumburg. 

Before the conference began, the emperor sent for the 
managers and exhorted them to lay aside all private feelings, 
and to have regard only to the truth, and the glory of God. 
He then handed them a book which he wished to be made 
the basis of the conference. § Frederick, the Elector Palatine, 
and Cardinal Granvella were appointed presidents of the 
assembly, and there was to be a witness on each side. 
Calvin has given an account of the proceedings in several 
letters addressed to Farel from Ratisbon and Strasburgh, the 

* See J ortin, Erasmus, ii., App. No. xvii. f lb., No. xviii. 

X See Ep. 1170. § Sleidan, lib. xiii., p. 225. M. Adamus, V. Buceri, p. 216. 



110 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAP. III. 



first of which contains an elaborate view of European politics 
at that juncture.* With regard to the business of the meet- 
ing, the doctrines of original sin, free-will, and justification, 
were, from the concessions made by the Roman Catholics, got 
over with such ease as excited the surprise of Calvin himself. 
Contarini had been directed by the Pope to ascertain, first of 
all, whether there was any prospect of coming to an agree- 
ment with the Protestants respecting the primacy of the 
Roman see, and some other articles on which the Reformers 
dissented most widely from the Romish Church. Contarini, 
however, thought it prudent to depart from these instruc- 
tions, and advised the managers, who did nothing without 
consulting him, to put the question of the Pope's supremacy 
last instead of first ; thinking it better to begin with those 
points, in which he and his friends approximated to the 
Protestants, f Thus at first every thing seemed to go on 
smoothly enough, and Calvin in his letter to Farel of the 
11th of May, J says: "When you shall have read the draft 
with its last corrections, which you will find enclosed, you 
will wonder, I am sure, that our adversaries should have con- 
ceded so much. Our managers have retained the sum of the 
true doctrine, so that there is nothing in the paper which 
may not be found in our books. You will desire, I am aware, 
a clearer explanation, and on that head I agree with you; 
but if you consider the sort of men we have to deal with, you 
will admit that much has been done." 

The question as to what constituted the Church occasioned 
more difficulty. The managers were agreed as to its defini- 
tion, but differed about its power. It was therefore deter- 
mined to pass over this point for the present. But the ques- 
tion of the eucharist, as might have been expected, proved 
insuperable. On this subject the managers requested the 
opinions of their brother ministers, and Calvin was desired to 
put down his sentiments in Latin. He strongly condemned 

* See Epp. 28, 31, 32, 35. f Ranke's^. of the Popes,!.' 162. t Ep. 31. 



CHAP. III.] 



DIET OF EATISBOK 



111 



the doctrine of the local Presence, and denounced the adora- 
tion of the host as intolerable. His decisive opinion seems to 
have influenced the rest. Melancthon drew up a paper in 
conformity with it, which Cardinal Granvella rejected with 
many angry expressions. Such being the difference of 
opinion respecting the fundamental point of that sacrament, 
little hope could be entertained of coming to an agreement 
on the difficult questions that still remained of private masses, 
the sacrifice of the mass, and the communication of the cup. 

At this stage of the proceedings, Eck, the chief manager 
on the Roman Catholic side, was suddenly seized with illness. 
He is said to have been infuriated by an argument respecting 
the eucharist advanced by Melancthon, which he could not 
answer; and, in order to console his rage, drank so much 
at supper, that he got a fever, and was not afterwards in 
a condition to attend the conference.* In order to balance 
this loss, Cardinal Granvella directed Pistorius to be 
removed from the Protestant side, and that the conference 
should proceed among the remaining four, but without 
witnesses. Calvin communicates to Earel the intelligence 
of Eck's partial recovery in the following terms : " They say 
that Eck is convalescent : the world doth not yet deserve 
to be delivered from that beast." f 

Calvin, seeing that there was little hope of coming to an 
accommodation, took advantage of an adjournment of the 
diet to leave Ratisbon, though Bucer and Melancthon were 
very loth that he should depart. But Capito was ill, and 
thus the school at Strasburgh was neglected, and the church 
also stood in need of attention. In a letter to Farel, dated 
from Strasburgh in July, J Calvin gives a further account of 
the conference. The Marquis of Brandenburgh, with the 
privity of the emperor, sent the Prince of Anhalt with a 

* M. Adamus, V. Melancihonis, p. 340. Calvin, however, calls it an apoplexy. 
f " Eckius, ut aiunt, convalescit : nondum meretur mundus ista bestia libe- 
rari." — Ep. 32. Eck survived about two years. % Ep. 35. 



112 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. III. 



message to Luther, who, it was thought, would be more favour- 
able than the managers to the papist views ; but it does not 
appear that he made any concessions. The Roman Catholics, 
on their part, made the following : — They were willing to 
abolish the traffic in masses, and to curtail their number, so 
that there should be but one mass a day in each church, 
and that only when a congregation was assembled. They 
granted free participation of the cup to those who sought it ; 
but the sacrifice of the mass they enveloped in a sophistical 
explanation. They insisted on the necessity of confession 
and absolution, but were content that there should be no 
scrupulous enumeration in the former. But all these articles 
were rejected by the Protestants; nor could they come to 
any agreement respecting the invocation of saints, the 
primacy of the Pope, and the authority of the Church. The 
emperor dissolved the diet on the 28th of July, promising to 
use his influence with the Pope, to get a council appointed ; 
and that, if neither a general nor provincial one could be 
obtained within eighteen months, he would then assemble 
an imperial diet for the purpose of settling religious 
differences, to which he would take care that the Pope should 
send a legate.* 

Thus ended the celebrated Diet of Ratisbon, in which the 
Roman Catholics and Reformers came more nearly to an 
accommodation than at any period before or since. The 
concessions, it will have been observed, were all on the side 
of the former ; but, from the relative situation of the parties, 
this was, in a great degree, the natural course of things. 

Whilst Calvin was engaged with these conferences the 
Genevese were actively negotiating for his return to their 
city. On the 20th of October, 1540, the council, in a 
resolution couched in the most flattering terms, ordered that 
he should be invited back ; f and their message was delivered 

* Sleidan, lib. xiv., p. 230. 
f " Pour 1' augmentation et 1' advancement de la parole de Dieu a e'te' ordonne 



chap, in.] 



STATE OF PARTIES AT GENEVA. 



113 



to Calvin just as he was on the point of setting out for 
Worms. In order to understand this change of feeling, we 
must revert for a moment to the state of parties at Geneva 
after the banishment of the ministers. 

The faction which had succeeded in expelling Calvin and 
his colleagues at first enjoyed a complete triumph. Farel, 
in particular, was the object of their railleries. They carried 
through the streets a frying-pan full of candle-snuffs, which 
in the patois of the place were called farets, in order to 
intimate that they had made a fricassee of Farel.* This 
faction, at the head of which was Jean Philippe, the captain- 
general, together with two of the syndics of the year 1538, 
was in the interest of Berne, and its adherents designated 
themselves by the name of the Artichokes, which plant they 
took for their device. All who, from whatever cause, were 
dissatisfied with the state of religion at Geneva, naturally 
joined this party, and thus it counted in its ranks both 
Anabaptists and Roman Catholics. 

On the other hand, the party of Farel v and Calvin was 
kept in subjection. The city was governed according to 
the views of Berne, and all, whether papists or ultra- 
evangelicals, who refused to conform to the decrees of the 
synod of Lausanne, were banished. With the majority, 
however, the adoption of the Bernese rites was but a pretence 
to get rid of the obnoxious discipline. The old licentiousness 
of manners again prevailed; dancing, gaming, drunkenness, 
and other still worse disorders flourished ; and adulterers 
were once more dismissed with the punishment of only 
three days 5 imprisonment on bread and water, f The new 
ministers, besides the inefficiency of their characters, were 
not numerous enough to superintend the charge committed 
to them. At first there were only two, Henry de la Mar, and 

<T envoyer querir es Strasbourg maitre I. Calvinus, lequel est bien savant, pour 
etre notre evangelique en cette ville." — Rtgistres, 20 Oct., 1540. Grenus, Fragmens 
BiograpJiiques. * Spon, ii. 26. f Ruchat, v. 96. 

I 



114 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. III. 



J ames Bernard : and at Whitsuntide following the departure 
of Calvin and Farel, when it was usual to celebrate the 
communion, two members of the council were obliged to 
assist at the table at St. Peter's and St. Gervais\ Sub- 
sequently two other ministers, Anthony Marcourt, and 
Dr. Morand, both foreigners, were appointed to the ministry. 
But neither these, nor their colleagues, were men of any 
talent or authority, and were consequently despised by the 
populace. Already, before the expiration of 1538, we find 
them complaining to the council of being suspected as 
infidels, papists, and corrupters of Scripture, as well as of 
the contempt and ill-will to which they were subjected, and 
begging to be dismissed from their office. * In February, 
1539, they are recorded as representing to the council the 
extreme dissoluteness manifested at Geneva, the blasphemies, 
balls, masquerades, and indecent songs, and even persons going 
naked through the town to the sound of drums and fifes. f 

This state of things lasted the whole of 1539, and part of 
the following year. The ministers were conscious of their 
inability to maintain order, and felt keenly the contempt 
with which they were treated. Calvin, however, though he 
disliked and despised his successors, did all he could in his 
communications with the Genevese to uphold their authority. 
His motive for this was the fear that, amidst these disorders, 
Geneva might be persuaded to return to the Roman Catholic 
faith; an attempt to effect which object had, as we have already 
seen, been made by Cardinal Sadolet. There seems, however, 
to have been but little ground for such an apprehension; 
for during Calvin's exile, it being doubtful what religion 
some persons professed, the council came to a resolution that 
all should be made to declare themselves ; and that such as 
professed Roman Catholicism should be banished. Among 
those interrogated was J ean Ballard, one of their own body, 
who only escaped the penalty by a timely concession. J Such, 



* Ruchat, v., App. 5. 



f Ibid, p. 112. 



X Spoil, ii. 32, note. 



chap, nr.] 



THE NEW PASTORS DESPISED. 



115 



nevertheless, being Calvin's apprehension, he thought it the 
best policy to support the new ministers. Being consulted 
by Saunier whether he ought to accept of the sacrament at 
their hands, Calvin, by the advice of Capito, with which his 
own sentiments agreed, told his correspondent that he should 
do so, without inquiring too minutely whether they had 
lawfully supplanted the old pastors : but at the same time 
dissuaded him from accepting the ministerial office with such 
colleagues.* Saunier, however, does not appear to have 
obeyed his injunctions; for at Christmas, 1538, both he and 
Mathurin Cordier, together with some others, were ordered 
to leave the city, because they would not receive the sacra- 
ment with unleavened bread. In his letter addressed to 
the church of Geneva on the 25th of June, 1539, Calvin 
admonishes his former flock of the dangers of schism, and 
insists strongly on the reverence due to their ministers de 
facto ; magnifying the priestly character, and asserting that 
the ministers of the Word should be regarded as the 
messengers of God.f Yet in a joint letter J from him and 
Farel to Bullinger, we find the following account of their 
successors : " Of the two who have invaded our places, one 
(Bernard) was guardian of the Franciscan convent at the 
beginning of the Reformation, and was always hostile to it 
till he beheld Christ in a handsome wife, whom since his 
marriage he hath corrupted in all possible ways. During his 
monkhood he lived most impurely and wickedly, without 
troubling himself to put on even the appearance of the 
superstition which he professed " — " Since his conversion he 
has behaved in a manner which indubitably shows that there 
is no fear of God, nor a grain of religion, in his heart. His 
colleague (H. de la Mar), though very sly in concealing his 
vices, is yet so notoriously vicious that he can impose only 
upon strangers. Both are very ignorant, and quite unfit, not 
only to teach, but even to prate ; and yet both are proud to a 



* Calvin to Farel, Ep. 11. 



f See Ep. 17. 
1 % 



% Henry, i., Beil. 9. 



116 



LIFE OF JOHN" CALVIN. 



[chap. III. 



degree of insolence. They now say that a third has been 
added, who was lately charged with, and all but convicted of, 
fornication, had not the assistance of a few friends rescued 
him from judgment. Nor do they administer their office 
more dexterously than they have usurped it. They thrust 
themselves into it partly without consulting, and partly 
against the express protests of, their brethren of the province, 
though they carry themselves rather as mercenaries than as 
servants of Christ. Truly nothing grieves us more than that 
the ministry should be prostituted and disgraced as it is by 
their levity, ignorance, and stupidity. Not a day passes in 
which some error is not observed in their conduct by men, 
women, and even children." 

These men, however, such as they are here painted, seem 
to have done what they could to check the torrent of vice 
and disorder. In April and July, 1540, we find them 
appearing before the council, remonstrating against the 
scandalous scenes which took place both by day and 
night, representing their inability to maintain order, and 
demanding their dismissal.* The council contented them- 
selves with recommending them to do their duty. Shortly 
afterwards Dr. Morand, disgusted at his position, left 
Geneva secretly; and within two months his colleague, 
Marcourt, followed his example. During this year the 
party of Farel and Calvin had been gradually gaining 
strength. It now ventured to show itself openly. Frequent 
conflicts took place in the streets, which resounded with 
the names of Farel and Artichoke, the watchwords of 
the two hostile factions. In one of these riots Jean Philippe, 
the captain-general, and head of the Artichokes, killed a 
man with a partisan; an act for which, in spite of remon- 
strances from Berne, he was condemned to lose his head.t 
This was a heavy blow to the anti-Calvinistic party, which 
other circumstances also contributed to depress. Claude 

* Ruchat, v. 147. t Spon, ii. 34. 



CHAP. III.] 



DISORDERS AT GENEVA. 



117 



Richardet, one of the syndics of the year 1538, who had 
assisted in banishing Calvin, and had told him that the 
gates were wide enough, had been convicted of sedition ; 
and being pursued by the officers of justice had broken 
his neck in attempting to escape from a window. Two 
other syndics of the same year had been obliged to fly from 
Geneva to avoid an accusation of treason, and had in their 
absence been tried and condemned.* These occurrences 
seemed like judgments upon the city. The council itself, 
as well as a majority of the citizens, wearied and alarmed by 
the constant disturbances, began to desire Calvin's return. 
The interest he had manifested for them by his letters from 
Strasburgh, and by his answer to Sadolet, was not without 
its effect. Political motives, also, had some weight. The 
Genevese began to fear that Berne was acquiring too 
much influence in their affairs; and the execution of Jean 
Philippe had excited considerable animosity between the two 
cities. In this state of things the secession of the two 
ministers excited a pressing desire for Calvin's recall; and 
in October the message was sent, to which we have already 
alluded. Farel does not appear to have received any 
invitation till it was known that Calvin hesitated, or at least 
delayed, to return. t But though Farel was at that time 
obnoxious to a large party at Neufchatel, and though a 
sentence of banishment was actually suspended over him, 
yet, upon being recalled by the Genevese, indignation at 
the treatment he had received from them, as well as an 
unwillingness to abandon what he now considered the post 
of duty, deterred him from accepting the invitation. 

Calvin communicated the letter of the Genevese council to 
Bucer and his other friends at Strasburgh. As they anticipated 

* Kirchhofer, ii. 18. Henry, i. 385. 
f In a letter to Farel, announcing the invitation he had received, Calvin says : 
" I dare hardly weigh their design in recalling me ; for, if they be sincere, why 
me rather than him whose ministry would be not less necessary to restore their 
church, than it was at first to found it." — Bp. 23. 



118 



LIFE OF JOHN CALTIX. 



[chap. nr. 



that much advantage would result from his attendance at 
Worms, they were of opinion that he should not give up 
his journey thither. Accordingly, Bucer wrote hack a letter 
to Geneva, which was also signed "by the other Strasburgh 
ministers, in which he pleaded this excuse, and advised the 
Genevese to procure the services of Yiret, who was then at 
Lausanne, till the Diet of Worms should be concluded.* 
Cabin also wrote a letter to the same effect, f Whilst at 
Worms, Calvin received another letter of the most pressing 
kind from the magistrates of Geneva, and which was delivered 
to him by the hands of Ami Perrin. His reply, dated from 
that town on the 12th of November, 1540, contains many 
civil expressions, and many protestations of his love for 
the church of Geneva. But he pleads his engagements 
at the conference, and does not hold out any positive hope 
of his return even afterwards; alleging that he could not 
quit his vocation at Strasburgh without the consent of 
those in authority there. { In the spring of 1541 the 
entreaties of the Genevese magistrates were renewed. 
According to the advice of the Strasburgh ministers they 
had obtained from the Bernese the loan of Viret's services, 
but only for six months. When, in May, 1541, this time was 
nearly expired, they addressed a circular letter to the govern- 
ments of Berne, Basle, and Zurich, to request their influence 
in procuring Calvin's return. § As this letter is not only 
characteristic of the times, but shows the important place 
which Calvin held in the estimation of the Genevese council, 
some extracts from it are here subjoined i — 

" Although," say they, " we have been troubled with many 
and serious disturbances in our city for about twenty years 
past, yet we have experienced, most illustrious princes, in all 

* Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 27. t See Ruchat, v , App. 6. 

X This letter is in Ruchat, v., App. 7, and P. Henry, i., Beil. 17. 
§ That to Zurich is printed in Henry, i., Beil. 15, from a Gen. MS. 



chap, in.] NEGOTIATIONS FOE CALYIN's RESTORATION. 119 



these tumults, seditions, and dangers, no such wrath of God 
pressing on our necks, as in the years just past ; in which by 
the art and machinations of factious and seditious men, our 
faithful pastors and ministers, by whom our church had been 
founded, built up, and long maintained, to the great comfort 
and edification of all, have been unjustly driven out and 
rejected with great ingratitude: those extraordinary favours 
and benefits being altogether passed over and forgotten, 
which we have received at the hand of God through their 
ministry. For from the hour that they were banished we 
have had nothing but troubles, enmities, strife, contention, 
disorders, seditions, factions, and homicides. So that by 
this time we should have been completely overwhelmed, 
unless God in his mercy, compassionately beholding us, had 
sent our brother Viret, who was formerly a faithful pastor 
here, to gather this miserable flock, which was so dispersed 
as scarcely to have any longer the appearance of a church. 
We acknowledge, therefore, that this great anger of God 
hath fallen upon us, because our Lord Jesus Christ hath 
been thus rejected and despised in his servants and ministers, 
and that we are unworthy ever to be esteemed his faithful 
disciples, or ever to find quiet in our state, unless we en- 
deavour to repair these offences, so that the due honour of 
the most holy evangelical ministry be restored; and, by 
common consent, we desire nothing more ardently than that 
our brethren and ministers be reinstated in their former 
place in this church, to which they were called by God. 

" Wherefore, most worshipful masters, we beg of you, in 
the name of Christ, and in so far as ye seek the welfare and 
safety of the churches, that for our sakes ye deign to beseech 
and urge the most illustrious princes of Strasburgh, that in 
their benevolence they not only restore our brother Calvin to 
us, who is so very necessary to us, and who is so anxiously 
sought after by our people ; but also that they will themselves 
condescend to persuade and urge him to. undertake this 



120 



LIFE OF JOHN" CALVIN. 



[chap. hi. 



office, and to come hither as speedily as possible. You are 
not ignorant how needful learned and pious men are in this 
place, such as we know Calvin and the rest of our former 
ministers to be ; as we are, as it were, the very gate of Italy 
and France, and a place from which either wonderful edifica- 
tion or ruin may proceed. And as many resort hither daily 
from those as well as other neighbouring regions, with what 
solace and edification will they return, if they behold our 
city settled in a decent order ! But that cannot be, unless 
we have those pastors and conductors which we have pointed 
out as needful for this church ; as we experience daily. For 
since our brother Viret has been conceded to us for some 
months by our dear friends and allies their excellencies of 
Berne, it is truly wonderful what fruit hath proceeded from 
his evangelical discourses, and in what peace and concord 
our city now is, by means of the great comfort and edifica- 
tion received from the Lord through him, and communicated 
even to strangers," &c. 

In consequence of this letter the pastors of the church of 
Zurich wrote to Calvin, persuading him to return to his 
ministry at Geneva. Calvin replied in a letter from Ratis- 
bon, dated the 31st of May, 1541.* In this he states that 
he shall refer the matter wholly to Bucer and the other 
ministers of Strasburgh, and requests that the church of 
Zurich will likewise send one of their ministers to consult as 
to what was best to be done. All his business at Strasburgh, 
he says, was to give a theological lecture ; and that his services 
were not so valuable that the school would suffer much 
inconvenience by his departure. " One thing only," he adds, 
" causes anxiety to Capito, Bucer, and the rest. They ex- 
pect little edification from my ministry at Geneva unless the 
Bernese join me bond fide, and stretch out a helping hand. 
Nor do I dissemble that my own hope is placed chiefly in 

* Printed in Henry, i., Beil. 19. 



chap, in.] NEGOTIATIONS FOR CALVIN'S RESTORATION. 121 

their assistance. First of all, therefore, it was thought 
proper to communicate with them, in order to induce them 
to do this; and they are by no means averse, provided it 
shall appear that the church of Geneva can be restored and 
preserved by my ministry." 

Besides these public invitations, Calvin was also solicited 
by private individuals. Amongst these we find James 
Bernard, one of the two remaining ministers at Geneva. 
In a letter to Calvin, dated the Gth of February, 1541,* he 
relates, that preaching one day at Bippe, and seeing the 
people affected even to tears, he admonished them, without 
mentioning Calvin's name or suspecting that he would be 
their choice, that they should seek by humble prayer that 
God would give them a minister. That on the next day 
there was a meeting of the Two Hundred, and, the day 
after that, of the general assembly ; and that in both these 
meetings Calvin's return to his ministry was unanimously 
desired, as being a learned and good man. Bernard adds 
his own wishes for his return, and says : " You will find 
me not such a one as the relation of certain persons 
— God forgive them — has led you to believe ; but a pious, 
sincere, and faithful brother, and moreover your friend, 
or rather, your most obsequious and devoted servant in 
all your wishes." This being the state of public feeling 
at Geneva, the act of banishment of the three ministers was 
revoked by the general assembly on the 1st of May, 1541 ; 
and, to show their sincerity, dancing and profane songs 
were prohibited, and people even talked of establishing a 
consistory, f 

Yet Calvin still delayed his return. That his reluctance 
was in some degree real is probable. We cannot, however, 
help suspecting, that he made the most of the conjunc- 
ture, and that he was determined that the Genevese should 
feel and know his worth. Soon after his banishment he had 



* Calvin, Epp. et Kesp., Ep. 24. 



*t* Spon, ii. 36. 



122 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. II 



not been disinclined to return, nay, had even negotiated 
to do so, when the Genevese were unwilling to receive him. 
Now, when they opened their arms to him of their own 
accord, it was his turn to coquet and raise difficulties. 
Several of his letters during this period expressed a dislike 
almost amounting to horror of returning to Geneva. In 
reply to Farel's request that he would return,* he says: 
" Who will not pardon me if I do not again Avillingly throw 
myself into a whirlpool which I have found so fatal? 
Nay, who would not blame me for too much facility if I 
should fling myself into it with my eyes open? Besides, 
putting my own danger out of the question, what if I can 
scarcely trust that my ministry will be of any use to them ? 
Since such is the temper of the majority there, that they 
will be neither tolerable to me, nor I to them. Moreover 
I shall have a still more difficult fight with my colleagues 
than with the rest. What can the efforts of one man do, 
when hampered by such obstacles on all sides ? And to 
confess the truth, though things should prove smooth enough, 
yet, by want of use, I have forgotten the art of governing a 
multitude." Writing to Viret from an inn at Ulm on his 
road to Ratisbon, on the 1st of March 1541, t he says: 
"There is no place under heaven which I more fear than 
Geneva; not that I dislike it, but because I see so many 
difficulties in my way there, which I feel myself quite 
unequal to cope with. Whenever I recall what has passed, 
I cannot help shuddering at the thought of being compelled 
to renew the old contests. If, indeed, I had to do with the 
church alone, I should be more tranquil, or at least less 
frightened; but you must necessarily understand more than 
I express. In short, as I perceive from many signs that the 
man who can hurt me most still entertains an inexpiable 
hatred towards me, and when I consider how many oppor- 
tunities he has of injuring me, how many bellows are always 



Calvin to Farel, Strasburgh, Oct. 21st, 1540, Ep. 23. 



t Ep. 25. 



chap, nr.] HE KELUCTANTLY KETURNS TO GENEVA. 123 



blowing the flames of strife, and how many occasions of 
contest will offer themselves which I cannot foresee, I am 
paralysed with fear." 

From these two letters we cannot but infer that Calvin really 
felt some alarm at the prospect of returning to Geneva. In 
the latter it takes a definite form, and points to some individual 
whom he does not name, — probably Yandel ; though in the 
same letter he still expresses his willingness to go, if absolutely 
necessary, in spite of these dangers. His answer to the 
council of Zurich, already referred to, runs much in the 
same strain.* Farel used all his endeavours to persuade Calvin 
to return. In January, 1541, he wrote to all the Swiss and 
other Reformed churches, begging them to apply to the 
government of Strasburgh for Calvin's rebase from his 
engagements.t He also wrote several letters to Calvin himself, 
persuading him to accept the offer of the Genevese, the last 
of which was couched in such forcible terms that Calvin 
compared it to the thunders of Pericles. J Bucer also added 
his remonstrances, threatening him with God's judgment if 
he did not accept the vocation; and placing before him 
the example of Jonas, who refused to go and preach to 
the Ninevites.§ Thus was Calvin for the second time 
forced, as it were, into the acceptance of the ministry at 
Geneva. But though he returned from Ratisbon to 
Strasburgh in July, he did not proceed to Geneva till the 
beginning of September, having remained at Strasburgh in 
order to preach there during the fair-time. || 

* Henry, L, Beil. 19. f Kirchhofer, ii. 20. 

X Ibid, p. 21., and Ferseus Farello (Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 26). 

§ Spon, ii. 36. || See his letter to Farel (MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, i. 397). 



124 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IV. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Calvin visits Neufchatel — His reception at Geneva — State of the church there — 
Farel invited — Calvin's ecclesiastical polity — Church and State — The 
Consistory — Service of the church — Presbyterianism — Calvin's idea of the 
priesthood — Method of upholding it — Practical discipline — His scheme not 
perfected — Calvin's civil legislation — Rigour of his laws. 3 

It was not without regret that Strasburgh saw itself 
deprived of Calvin's services. In July, 1539, when he had 
probably given up all thoughts of returning to Geneva, he 
had purchased the freedom of that city, and enrolled him- 
self in the guild of tailors.* Upon his departure he was 
requested to retain his right of citizenship, as well as the 
revenues of a prebend to which he had been presented. 
The former of these offers he accepted ; the latter he 
declined, f 

Calvin's return to Geneva was a sort of triumph. On his 
part it was a matter of favour and concession, and com- 
pletely on his own terms. It appears from the Registers 
that a mounted herald was sent to escort him from Stras- 
burgh. Three horses and a carriage were sent to bring his 
wife and furniture, and he was also furnished with money, and 
other necessaries. J Whilst on his journey, however, some 
news respecting his friend Farel induced Calvin to leave the 
direct road, and proceed to Neufchatel. It has been already 
intimated that at that time Farel did not stand well with his 
flock. His excessive zeal in introducing a strict system of 
discipline had proved distasteful to many; and in July this 

* P. Henry, i. 225. f Beza, VitaCalv. % P. Henry, ii. 18. 



CHAP. IV.] 



CALVIN VISITS NEUFCHATEL. 



125 



growing feeling of dissatisfaction had been brought to a crisis 
by his attacking from the pulpit a lady, the mother of several 
children, who for some reason had thought proper to separate 
herself from her husband. Shocked and offended at this 
attack the lady absented herself not only from communion, but 
even from the ordinary church service; and though Farel urged 
the government to interpose, his application was not successful. 
Hereupon, with his usual intemperance, he made a violent 
sermon against the council and general assembly, which 
much increased the ill-will against him. The lady's friends 
bestirred themselves to get him condemned; and a majority 
of the general assembly voted for his banishment, though 
two months were granted him to leave the city. In this 
state of things Calvin arrived at Neufchatel, to use his good 
offices for his friend. From this place he addressed a letter 
to the syndics and council of Geneva, and then hastened to 
Berne to plead Farel's cause with the government of that 
city. A complete reconciliation between Farel and his flock 
was not effected, however, till the following January.* 

Calvin's return to Geneva was thus delayed till the 13th 
of September. On the very same day he appeared before 
the council to apologise for this delay ; and even in this first 
interview intimated his wish that the affairs of the church 
should be put in order, f He was received with every mark 
of honour and affection. The council earnestly intreated him 
to remain with them for ever ; and presented him with a new 
suit of broad-cloth, which was in those days a usual mark of 
their respect and good- will. J A house had been provided for 
him, with a garden attached, situate, as it would appear, in 
the Rue des Chanoines, and thus not far from the cloisters of 
St. Peter's, where the consistory afterwards held its sittings. § 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, ii. 20. Ruchat, v. 164. 
+ Registres, 13 Sept., 1541, apud P. Henry, ii. 23, note. 
X " On prie tres instamment Calvin de rester ici pour toujours ; et on lui 
donne un habit de drap." — Registres, 13 Sept., 1541. Grenus, Fragmens 
Biographiques. § P. Henry, ii. 19. 



126 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



("chap. if. 



His salary was fixed at fifty dollars, besides twelve strikes 
of corn, and two casks of wine. This does not seem 
very considerable ; but we must take into consideration 
the relative value of money ; and the payment in kind seems 
to argue a want of means on the part of the city. That the 
Genevese council considered it a very liberal allowance, 
appears from the terms in which they speak of it in the 
Registers; where it is mentioned as "handsome wages/' 
given to him on account of his great learning, and the 
charges he was at by reason of the visits of travellers.* 
Calvin himself, amongst whose faults the love of money 
certainly was not one, seems to have been perfectly satisfied 
with his remuneration ; and though we sometimes find him 
receiving presents from the council for extra services, yet many 
instances occur in which he refused them. The pulpit of 
St. Peter's church was prepared for him. It stood upon a 
broad and low stone pillar, so that the whole congregation 
might hear him with ease. 

The following was the ordinary routine of his indefatigable 
labours after his return. He preached every day during 
each alternate week; thrice a week he gave lectures in 
theology; presided in the consistory every Thursday; and 
every Friday, at the meetings for scriptural discussion held 
in St. Peter's church, delivered almost a complete lecture. 
When it was not his week to preach he had his books 
brought to him in bed, at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, 
and dictated to an amanuensis. When it was his turn to 
mount the pulpit, he was always ready at the appointed hour ; 
and when he returned home, either went to bed again, or threw 
himself upon it in his clothes to pursue his literary avo- 
cations. Yet, notwithstanding these multifarious pursuits, 

* " Gage considerable donne a M. Calvin, a cause de son grand savoir, et de 
ce que les passans lui coutent beaucoup." — Registres, 4 Oct. Gre'nus, Fragmens 
Biographiques. In his French Life (Geneve, 1663, p. 155), Beza states his salary 
at 600 florins (i.e. Genevese florins of about ±\d), or equal to 300 Hires Tournois, 
which is about the same as the preceding statement. 



CHAP. IV.] 



HIS RECEPTION AT GENEVA. 



127 



he found time to reply to the numerous letters which he 
received from all parts, on subjects connected with theology 
and church government.* 

Though Calvin, on his return, prudently abstained from 
addressing the council on the subject of old and personal 
grievances, as he had once intended to do, he made them 
a speech on the state of morals in the city: but on this 
score he found little reason to complain of the zeal of 
the government. When the recall of the exiled ministers 
had been resolved on, the council had again pushed their 
regulations on this head to a point of puritanical precision. 
The Registers show that these were not mere idle thunders. 
On the 1st of November, 1540, we find several women 
imprisoned for having danced. On the 18th of June, 1541, 
it is recorded that the wife of Ami Perrin, the very member 
of the council who had been deputed to solicit Calvin's 
return, was punished for the like cause ; as also one Coquet, 
who had told the people assembled to shoot at the papegay, 
that they were at liberty to dance, f Calvin, therefore, in 
addressing Farel soon after his return, expresses himself 
tolerably satisfied on this head. "The people," he writes, 
"are pretty obedient; at least the sermons are regularly 
attended, and the state of morals sufficiently decent : but 
there is still much vice in their hearts ; which, unless it 
be gradually eradicated, will I fear burst forth into open 
contagion." J In the same] letter he complains sadly of the 
want of efficient coadjutors. The only one on whom he 
could rely was Viret. He consequently strained every nerve to 
get that minister's leave of absence prolonged, and succeeded 
in retaining him at Geneva till July in the following year. In 
a letter to Myconius, dated on the 14th of March, § Calvin 

* Beza, Vita Calv. Spon, ii. 37. P. Henry, ii. 177. 
f See P. Henry,ii. 18. J Calvin to Farel, Nov. 11th, 1541, Ep. 39. 

§ Ep. 54. No year is given ; but it must have been 1542, as Viret is 
mentioned as still at Geneva. It is put among the letters of 1544. 



128 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IV. 



represents his labours for the first month after his return as 
very irksome. Viret had done a little; but had not 
attempted to establish any regular form of discipline. After 
thanking Myconius for his good offices with the Bernese, to 
get Viret's term of absence extended, he thus describes 
his other coadjutors : " My other colleagues are rather a 
hindrance than a help to me : they are arrogant and fero- 
cious, have no zeal, and very little learning. The worst is, 
that I cannot trust them, however I might wish it ; for they 
discover many proofs of alienation, but scarce a symptom 
of good faith and sincerity. Nevertheless I bear with them, 
or rather caress them, with the greatest gentleness; from 
doing which not even their bad conduct shall deter me. If 
stronger means become necessary, I will take care that the 
church shall not be damaged by our quarrels; for I have 
a perfect horror of those schisms which necessarily follow 
disagreements among ministers. Had I chosen to do so, I 
could have gotten them dismissed when I returned; which 
even now is in my power. But I shall never repent the 
moderation I have shown towards them, since nobody will 
be able justly to accuse me of too much vehemence. I mention 
these things by the way, that you may the more easily 
see in what a miserable situation I shall be, if deprived of 
Viret " And further on he adds : " There are in the city, as 
I have said, the seeds of intestine discord ; but my patience 
and mildness prevent the church from feeling any ill effects 
from this circumstance, or the people from becoming ac- 
quainted with it. Everybody knows Viret' s kind and gentle 
temper ; and, at all events in present circumstances, I myself 
am not a whit harsher. Perhaps you will hardly believe 
this ; yet so it is. Such is my desire for public peace and 
concord, that I put a restraint upon myself for which my 
very adversaries are compelled to give me credit. A portion 
of my enemies daily become my friends. To the rest I 
make advances : and though I do not always succeed, I feel 



CHAP. IV.] 



STATE OF THE GENEVESE CHUECH. 



129 



that I make some progress. I could have driven out my 
opponents, and that too, with applause, and have attacked 
successfully all who had injured me : — I abstained. I might 
inveigh against them daily if I chose, not only with impunity, 
but with the approbation of many : — I forbear. Nay, I 
scrupulously avoid the least appearance of attacking any 
one, much more the whole body. May the Lord confirm 
this disposition." 

The triumphant nature of Calvin's return had undoubtedly 
strengthened his hands against his fellow-ministers; and 
there is no reason to doubt that he really possessed the 
power of dismissing them, had he chosen to exert it. In 
the preceding extracts he plumes himself much on this 
forbearance ; for which he evidently thought that he should 
hardly find credit among those who knew him. In fact, 
his behaviour on this occasion was the effect rather of his 
good sense than of his natural disposition. That it cost him 
an effort, he himself acknowledges. But his recent experi- 
ence, and perhaps, too, the example of Farel's situation at 
Neufchatel, had taught him a lesson of moderation. He 
perceived that any open rupture with his brethren would be 
a scandal, and a hindrance both to himself and to the church 
of Geneva; and therefore he did his best, though against 
the grain, to conciliate them. The same tone of new-born 
moderation pervades his correspondence with Farel at this 
juncture. In a letter to him, dated on the 16th December, 
1541,* he says : " Since a good cause needs a good advocate, 
see that you do not so spare yourself that even the righteous 
may find something wanting in you. I do not exhort you 
to maintain a pure conscience ; for on that head I feel no 
misgivings. All I ask of you is to accommodate yourself to 
the people as much as your duty will permit. There are, 
you know, two kinds of popularity : in one, ambition and 

* Ep. 50. In the Lausanne edition it is dated 1543 ; but the contents 
evidently show that this is a mistake. 

K 



130 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAF. IV. 



the desire of pleasing lead us to seek men's favour; in the 
other we allure them to docility by the exercise of moderation 
and equity. Pardon me if I seem too free; but on this 
head I perceive that you do not satisfy the good." 

Calvin considered it for the interest of the church that a 
thorough reconciliation should appear to have been effected 
between the Genevese and their banished ministers ; and 
with that view, towards the close of December, 1541, he 
wrote a letter to Farel inviting him to Geneva.* At first 
it had been arranged that when Calvin returned, Farel 
should escort him back; that, as they had been banished 
together, so the unity of their ministry might still appear 
to be preserved. But the breach which had occurred 
between Farel and a large portion of his flock had prevented 
him from leaving Neufchatel at that juncture. This was 
now pretty nearly healed, so that he might absent himself 
for a while without danger or impropriety on that score : 
but there seems to have been other scruples brooding in 
FareFs mind respecting a visit to Geneva. He alleged his 
dissatisfaction at receiving an invitation only from the 
council, when his banishment had been the act of the 
Genevese people. In fact, there seems to have been some 
little jealousy rankling in his heart, that Calvin had been 
the object of the people's choice, and that but little had 
been said about himself. In reference to this feeling, Calviu 
says in the letter just quoted : " Whence this new scruple ? 
Was not your name proposed to the people when it decreed 
the return of those whom it had banished ? Neither I nor 
any one else was named, except in the following words : f Do 
you not decree that Farel and his colleagues have been 
wronged?' What more do you require from the people than 

* « Now that I hear things are more peaceable in your parts, it is for the 
interest of our common ministry, of myself, and of the whole church, that you 
should come here once." — Ep. 40. In this letter Calvin announces the death of 
his friend Capito at Strasburgh, and that Bucer was sick of the plague. 



chap, iv.] FAKEL INVITED TO GENEVA. 



131 



that they should acknowledge their own guilt by approving 
your innocence? The form further said: ' Do you decree 
that Farel, with his colleagues/ &c. Pardon me, brother, 
should I seem to speak too harshly; but your scruples 
appear to me to proceed from moroseness rather than sound 
judgment. For my part, I well know the integrity of your 
mind ; nor have I forgotten the many satisfactory proofs you 
have given how little you regard yourself : but take care, 
lest you raise suspicions in those who do not know you 
intimately; nay, lest those who do not suspect you, should, 
nevertheless, avail themselves of an occasion to defame you." 
Farel yielded to these representations, and paid a visit to 
Geneva, where he was much struck by the changes which 
Calvin had already succeeded in effecting.* But in order 
to understand these it will be necessary to take a view of 
his system of church government and discipline. 

From the moment that he first set his foot in Geneva 
Calvin could not but have been aware of the advantages 
offered by his position. An ancient polity fallen to the ground, 
together with the religion which had been its prop ; a priest- 
hood retiring discomfited and disgraced, abandoning at once 
their sacred office, and their secular revenues; a people 
inflamed with the love of civil and religious liberty, which in 
their case were identical, and willing to submit themselves 
to those who offered to conduct them to both ; a new system 
of education, of civil laws, and of ecclesiastical government 
to be built upon the ruins of the old : these were the scattered 
elements which awaited but the plastic power of some master- 
spirit to be combined into new and lasting forms. The young 
republic, though secured by its position and other circum- 
stances from the assaults of external enemies, consisted of 
a small population, and might thus be easily moulded to obey 
one consistent system of civil and ecclesiastical polity. To 
effect this was Calvin's chief aim from the moment of his 



* Kirchhofer, ii. 47. 
K 2 



132 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAF. IV. 



return to Geneva. His next object was to render that city 
the stronghold of Protestantism, in its severest form, and the 
centre from which it might be propagated throughout 
Europe.* From this period the history of his life consists of 
little more than his struggles to accomplish these two purposes. 

His first efforts were directed to establish his scheme of 
church discipline. We have already seen that this was not 
absent from his thoughts even during his banishment at 
Strasburgh ; and that he had devoted a chapter of the new 
edition of his " Institutes/' published at that place, to the 
development of his plans. He was now in a position to carry 
his theories into practical operation. From a letter to Farel,f 
dated on the 16th of September, 1541, and written therefore 
only three days after his return to Geneva, we find that he 
had already represented to the council the necessity for some 
scheme of discipline, agreeable to the word of God, and the 
practice of the ancient church ; and that he had laid some 
heads before them, from which they might gather his general 
views. The subject was, however, too extensive to be 
accurately detailed before that assembly; and Calvin had 
therefore requested that certain persons should be appointed 
to confer with him and his brother ministers on the subject. 
To this request the council acceded, and nominated six 
persons for that purpose. With their assistance, Calvin was 
to draw up a set of articles respecting church polity, which 
were to be submitted to the council, and afterwards to the 
Two Hundred and to the general assembly; and as three 
of these colleagues were known to favour the views of himself 

* How well aware Calvin was of the advantages offered by Geneva in this 
respect, appears from his correspondence. Thus in a letter to Bullinger, in May, 
1549, he says : " If I wished to consider my own life and private interests, I 
should immediately depart to some other place. But when I consider the im- 
portance of this spot to the propagation of Christ's kingdom, I am with reason 
solicitous about its preservation : and indeed even your advantage and tran- 
quillity turn in some degree upon this." — MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, i. 164. 

f Ep. 50. 



CHAP, rv.] 



calvin's ecclesiastical polity. 



133 



and Viret, Calvin had no doubt that something would be 
obtained.* 

As Calvin's scheme of church government forms one of 
the most prominent traits in his character as a Reformer, and 
as much of the sequel of this narrative would be but 
imperfectly understood without some acquaintance with it, 
it will be proper to give a brief account of it here. 

His theory on the subject is laid down in the fourth 
book of his " Institutes." It naturally divides itself into two 
principal heads : first, as to what constitutes a church ; and 
second, as to the relation between church and state. The 
main key to his system is a direct opposition to Rome ; a root 
and branch reform, which was to bring back church govern- 
ment to the model of the apostolic times. 

As he allowed no other instrument of interpretation 
between God and man than the Scriptures, and rejected all 
traditions, and other human appliances, the first of these 
questions was easily settled. After a dissertation on the 
visible church, aimed against that of Rome, he thus defines 
A church. "Wheresoever the word of God is sincerely 
preached and heard, and the sacraments administered 
according to the institution of Christ, there, no doubt, is a 
church of God ; since his promise cannot fail, that, when two 
or three are gathered together in his name, he is in the 
midst of them." f The church, therefore, consisted out- 
wardly of the whole body of the clergy and laity, who were 
of the same faith in fundamental points ; though, according 
to Calvin's more esoteric doctrine, the true church consisted 
of the elect, who were known only to God. 

The solution of the other question, as to the relations of 
church and state, was more complicated. Here the Scriptures 

* " Suivant la resolution du grand et petit conseil derechef ordonne que les Srs 
Predicans, avec les 6 Deputes, doivent suivre aux ordonnances sur 1' ordre de 
T Eglise, avec un mode de vivre lequel avant toutes choses sera visite par le petit et 
ensuite par les CC et General Conseil, de savoir comment chacun se de'vra conduire 
selon Dieu et justice." — Rzgistres, 16 Sept. P. Henry, ii. 23. f Instit., iv.,c. i, § 9. 



134 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap, it, 



do not afford so clear a guide, and much is necessarily left to 
argument and inference. 

One point, however, is clearly laid down in Scripture ; the 
duty, namely, of submission to established government. On this 
subject Calvin carried his views to an extreme which may 
surprise those who are but little acquainted with his political 
principles, and who form their notion of them from the conduct 
of his followers in Scotland during the time of Knox, and in 
England at the beginning of the civil troubles. So far from 
being an advocate of sedition, Calvin inculcated the duty of 
unconditional submission to the civil power. Christian 
freedom he holds to be perfectly compatible with political 
servitude.* In considering the three principal kinds of 
government, namely, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, 
he prefers the second ; f an opinion which he practically 
carried out in his legislative reforms at Geneva. Nay, 
considered abstractedly, he gives the preference to monarchy; 
and postpones it to aristocracy only from the difficulty there 
may be of always finding a good and virtuous king. He 
must, therefore, have had a despotic monarchy in view. In 
another part of his " Institutes " he maintains the divine right 
of kings, and the duty of passive obedience. J The punishment 
of evil sovereigns, he says,belongs to God alone. "Let princes 
hear and tremble. In the meantime it behoves us to take the 
greatest possible care lest we despise or violate the authority 
of the magistrates, which is so full of venerable majesty, and 
which God hath sanctioned by the gravest edicts, even though 
it should be vested in the most unworthy, and in those who 
do all they can to pollute it by their wickedness. Nor, 

* " For why is it that the same Apostle who commands us to stand fast and 
not to subject ourselves to the yoke of servitude (Gal. v. 1), in another place 
forbids servants to be solicitous about their condition (1 Cor. vii. 21), except that 
spiritual liberty may very well consist with political servitude % " — Institutions, 
iv., c. 20, § 1. 

t See Institutions, iv., c. 20, § 8. In this part Calvin seems to have Aristotle's 
UoXiTeia in view. % Ibid, §§ 25 — 29. 



CHAP. IV.] 



CHURCH AND STATE. 



135 



because the vengeance of the Lord is the correction of 
unbridled tyranny, let us thence hastily conclude it to be 
intrusted to ourselves, to whom no other command is given 
than to obey and suffer." * The fanatical contempt of civil 
government displayed by the Anabaptists, which had tended 
to throw much odium and suspicion on the Reformation, seems 
to have been one of the causes that led Calvin to adopt these 
sentiments : but they also favoured his own views of church 
discipline and polity. 

There was, however, one case in which he sanctioned dis- 
obedience to the civil magistrate ; and that was when his com- 
mands ran contrary to those of God.f Here, it is evident that 
a large loop-hole was opened to those who should dispute how 
the precepts of God were to be interpreted. Mere disobedience, 
indeed, and active rebellion are two different things : but 
though Calvin does not appear to have lent any direct sanction 
to the latter, his conduct at the beginning of the religious 
wars in France, as there will be occasion to relate further on, 
shows that, where religion was in question, he gave at least a 
tacit assent to active resistance. 

Calvin was for an established church ; that is, for a church 
supported by the civil power. Thus offenders against the 
laws or doctrine of the church were, in the last resort, 
handed over to the secular arm for punishment : and never 
was there a church that permitted less deviation from its 
established rules, even in the minutest points, than that of 
Calvin. Dissent was punished, according to the gravity of 
the case, with fines, imprisonment, exile, and even death. 
The connection between church, and state was strength- 
ened by the admission of laymen to a share of ecclesiastical 
power. 

But though the church, as a civil institution, was thus 
connected with the state, Calvin was very careful in separating 
and distinguishing their respective functions. Each was to 



* See Institutions, iv., c. 20, § 31. 



f Ibid, § 32. 



136 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. IV. 



be supreme in its peculiar province. To the state belongs 
the superintendence and government of men's temporal 
affairs ; whilst the care of their eternal welfare belongs 
exclusively to the church. The government, therefore, was 
not to interfere in purely religious questions ; nor, on the 
other hand, was the church to assume any of the functions 
which belong to the civil power. Controverted points of 
faith were to be finally decided by synods. Calvin would 
have pushed this principle of non-interference to the point 
of making the church independent on the government for 
its revenues. In a letter to Viret, dated in September, 
1542, after describing the sale of ecclesiastical property to 
laymen, which, at Geneva, as in other places, was one of the 
consequences of the Reformation, he subjoins : " You will 
easily guess my sentiments. You perceive that it is an aliena- 
tion, and that the church is left naked, in order that the 
magistrate may give what he pleases, as if it were his own : 
and that if any minister is wanting in subservience, he may 
even take away the portion he distributes, or threaten to do 
so."* Notwithstanding Calvin's opposition to all the usages 
of the Romish Church, he seems, on this point, to have been 
willing to comply with its practice. From 'a letter to Farel, 
on the same subject, f we learn that he sometimes delivered 
his sentiments concerning it, both before the council, and 
in the pulpit ; and that the government suspected the clergy 
of being too ambitious in endeavouring to reclaim the 
property of the church : a suspicion which Calvin desired to 
avoid, though not in such a manner as to connive at what he 
calls sacrilege. 

Having thus briefly adverted to his theory of a church, let 
us proceed to inquire how he carried it into practice. 

The government of the church was vested in a consistory, 

* MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, ii., Beil. i. Satisfaciat seems to be a misprint. 
The Genevese . magistrates sold the Church property, and gave the Reformed 
ministers an annual salary. + Epp. et Resp., Ep. 66 ? Oct. 13th, 1545. 



CHAP. IV.] 



THE CONSISTOKY. 



137 



composed of six ministers, and twelve lay elders.* Two of 
the elders were chosen from the members of the little, or 
ordinary, council ; and the remainder out of the council of 
Two Hundred. They were indicated by the ministers, but 
elected by the ordinary council. Before they took their 
seats, their names were published, in order that they might 
be denounced, if known to be unworthy. The general 
assembly had a veto upon their appointment ; both citizens 
and denizens were eligible ; and the election was annual ; 
but it was not customary to remove those who had discharged 
the office worthily, unless they had been appointed to some 
post in the state. According to the rules, one of the syndics 
was to preside at the meetings of the consistory; not, 
however, in his civil capacity, but merely as an elder, and 
without his baton of office. But Calvin seems to have soon 
usurped the presidency, and to have retained it till his 
death.f The elders were paid two sols a day out of the sum 
accruing from the fines imposed by the consistory, which 
were put into a box. 

The consistory assembled every Thursday. Its juris- 
diction extended to matrimonial causes, and the following 
offenders were amenable to its censures — namely, blasphemers, 
drunkards, fornicators, brawlers and fighters, dancers, dancing- 
masters, and the like ; as well as those who spread doctrines 
at variance with the teaching of the church of Geneva, and 
those who neglected divine service, or showed an open contempt 

* The following sketch is taken from Calvin, Epp. 167, 302, & 377, and from 
Dr. Henry's account of the Ordonnances JEcclesiastiques, Th. ii., p. 1 11, et seq. 

+ Thus we find in the Registres, 29 Fevrier, 1580 : "Les ministres alleguent, 
pour faire supprimer la presidence a vie, que le diable a fait breche dans 
P eglise par 1' etablissement de differens grades et dignites entre les pasteurs, et 
qu'il faut prevenir ses astuces, qui commencent par de bien petites choses ; que 
Dieu avait suscite ci-devant dans cette eglise feu M. Calvin, personnage d' un 
tres grand me'rite, et qu'il 1' avait combld de graces toutes particulieres, de sorte 
que par la veneration qu'il s' etait attire'e, on luy voyoit avec plaisir exercer la 
presidence, sans qu'il y eut pourtant ete' appele par aucune election." See 
P. Henry, i. 469. 



138 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IV. 



for the church and clergy. Offenders, in minor points, 
were dismissed with an admonition; those guilty of graver 
delinquencies were excommunicated, for a time at least. 
The same minister who had excluded them from the 
communion, might readmit them on their expressing a 
proper contrition. Nobody was cited before the consistory 
except with the unanimous consent of that body, nor unless 
he had neglected private admonitions. As the power of 
the consistory did not extend further than excommunication, 
the secular arm of the council was resorted to in the case 
of hardened offenders. Persons who obstinately and con- 
tumaciously contemned and defied the authority and censures 
of the church, were handed over to the council, who 
banished them for a year. The church thus enforced its 
prerogatives by means of secular punishment, without 
incurring the odium of actually inflicting it. They who 
had returned to the Roman Catholic communion for the 
sake of saving their lives, were compelled to beg pardon 
on their knees, before the consistory, before they were 
readmitted into the church. The consistory did not 
interfere with the course of civil jurisdiction: and that 
the people might not complain of undue rigour, not only 
were the ministers themselves liable to the same punish- 
ments as laymen, but if they committed anything deserving 
of excommunication, they were dismissed. 

-The service of the church was performed by the ministers, 
assisted by the elders. The ministers were elected by the 
college. In order to test their skill in interpretation a text 
of Scripture was proposed to them ; after which they were 
examined in the principal heads of doctrine. They were 
then allowed to preach a sermon, at which the ministers 
were present, as well as two members of the council. If 
the learning of the candidate was approved the ministers 
presented him to the council, with a testimony to that 
effect. The council had the power of rejecting; but no 



CHAP. IV.] 



SERVICE OF THE CHURCH. 



139 



instance of their exerting it appears to have occurred, during 
Calvin's life at least. When the council had sanctioned the 
appointment, the name of the new minister was published, 
in order that if any one knew aught to the prejudice of 
his character, he might state it within eight days. When 
elected, the minister swore to observe the laws established in 
church and state ; but not in such a manner as to preclude 
himself from the free interpretation of Scripture. 

Besides the ministers (or preachers) and elders, there were 
likewise doctors (or teachers) and deacons attached to the 
church. The office of the doctors was to teach the ancient 
languages, in order that those destined for the church might 
be able to read the Scriptures in the original. The deacons, 
who were chosen in the same manner as the elders, dis- 
tributed alms, and looked after the sick and poor. At the 
communion table, the preachers or ministers administered 
only the bread; the cup was served by the elders and deacons. 

Baptism was to take place publicly before the congre- 
gation. The parents were required to be present with the 
sponsors ; and no person who was not of the same persuasion 
as the Genevese church, nor any excommunicated person, 
was permitted to be a sponsor. Nobody was admitted to the 
Lord's Supper before he had made profession of his faith, and 
been examined by a minister as to his knowledge of the main 
points of religious belief. Children were publicly examined 
four times in the year. Besides this, there was an annual 
visitation of every house by a minister, accompanied by an 
elder. New inhabitants were examined as to their faith; 
but in the case of those who had been received into the 
church, the inquiry was confined to their mode of life ; 
whether the household lived in peace ; whether there was 
any drunkenness; whether any quarrels and bickerings 
with neighbours; whether the family attended the sermon 
regularly. In order to facilitate the working of this system 
the city was divided into three parishes — those of St. Peter's, 



no 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IV. 



the Magdalen, and St. Gervais. St. Peter's church, where 
Calvin officiated, was attended by the higher classes. St. 
Gervais, which was more frequented by the inferior orders, 
was under the ministry of Yiret till his return to Lausanne 
in July, 1542, when Calvin got two new ministers elected to 
assist him.* Besides this scheme of discipline, Calvin also 
drew up and published in 1541 his liturgy, or form of 
prayers, with the manner of administering the sacraments, 
celebrating marriage, and visiting the sick. 

Such was the form of church government established by 
Calvin, who may be regarded as the founder of the Pres- 
byterian scheme of ecclesiastical polity. Zwingli had, indeed, 
recognised the equality of rank among the clergy, had 
instituted synods, and had in a certain degree admitted 
laymen to a share in the government of the church. In his 
scheme, however, the services of the latter were almost ex- 
clusively employed in matrimonial questions ; nor had they 
those, so to term them, episcopal functions of Calvin's lay 
elders, by which they were invested with the supervision of all 
the members of the church, the ministers themselves included. 
There were no traces of such an institution, either at Stras- 
burgh or Geneva, before the time of Calvin. Farel had not 
thought of establishing a consistory in the latter city ; and 
it is only after Calvin's arrival there that we find any traces 
of a connexion between the laity and clergy. It is true that 
in April, 1 541, and consequently before Calvin's return from 
banishment, the council had, at the instance apparently of 
Viret, established a sort of consistory for matrimonial, and 
other, not strictly civil, causes, at which two members of the 
little, and two of the great council, were to be present, 
together with a secretary.f But as the Genevese were then 

* P. Henry, ii. 27. 

*f " Ann qu'il est besoin de faire plusieurs remontrances a plusieurs qui viveiit 
mal, aussi des causes des marriages, ordonne qu'il soit erige un consistoire lequel 
se devra tenir tous les Jeudis et qu'il soit present deux du petit conseil et deux 
du grand, et un secretaire." — Rigistres, 5 Avril, 1541, apud P. Henry, ii. 86. 



CHAP. IV.] 



PKESBYTERIAMSM. 



141 



negotiating for Calvin's return, there cannot be a doubt that 
this imperfect approach to his scheme was adopted in com- 
pliance with the views which he had promulgated some time 
previously in his " Institutes." * 

The system here described would seem to subject the 
church to the civil power, and such might have been the 
eifect of it in any other hands but those of Calvin. He, 
however, knew how to wield it in a manner that rendered 
him an almost absolute dictator at Geneva. The same cause 
obviated any tendency to anarchy which might be supposed 
to arise from this mixture of clergy and laymen. Whatever 
power was wanting to the church Calvin supplied by the 
extreme respect which he so jealously exacted for the 
priestly character, and especially for his own. He did not 
scruple to place the leaders of the Reformation, amongst 
whom he himself claimed a place, on a level with the evan- 
gelists. Thus in his " Institutes" f ne sa y s : " According to 
this interpretation, which appears to me agreeable to the 
words and meaning of St. Paul, these three offices (viz., 
apostles, prophets, and evangelists) were not instituted in 
the church in perpetuity, but only whilst churches were 
to be established where none existed before ; or at all events 
where they were to be transferred from Moses to Christ. 
Although I do not deny that God hath sometimes raised 
up apostles, or at least evangelists, subsequently ; as in 
our own time. For there was need of them to bring back 
the church from the defection of Antichrist." So also in 
his book against Pighius, he says : " Let Pighius, therefore, 
cease to wonder whence this new and unheard of efficacy of 
our teaching proceeds, since the thing itself plainly shows that 
it was not Luther who spoke in the beginning, but God who 
thundered through his mouth; nor is it I who now speak, 
but God, who puts forth his power from heaven." J In a 
letter to a certain congregation he states with regard to one 

* See P. Henry, ii. 86. f Lib. iv., c. 2, § 4. + Opera, viii. 1 1 8, B., Amst, ed. 



142 



LIFE OF JOHN CAL YIN. 



[chap. IV. 



M. de Vau, who, he complains, had defamed him : " He 
says that every body here kisses my slipper. I believe you 
have witnesses enough of my pomp, and how much I seek 
that homage should be paid to me. I am well assured that 
if he could get my place he would show a very different sort 
of pride ; for since he, being nothing, is so puffed up, if he 
was advanced a step he would certainly burst. But he 
shows what a venemous beast he is by the sorrow he betrays 
at seeing everything here so united ; since he calls it kissing 
my slipper that they do not rise against me and the doctrine 
that I teach, so as to offend God in my person, and, as it 
were, tread him under foot."* 

But if Calvin was not exactly the Pope, he might at least be 
considered as the Bishop of Geneva. In a conversation with 
Untenbogaert, Casaubon affirmed that Beza had told him 
that Calvin, though he had rejected episcopacy, was vir- 
tually Bishop of Geneva; and that a little before his death 
he had offered Beza to make him his successor, but that 
he had declined, t This is in allusion to Calvin's having 
usurped the perpetual presidency of the consistory, as 
already related, and in which he wished Beza to succeed him. 

That the hand of God was indeed in the Reformation no 
pious Protestant will deny; and it must also be conceded 
that there was much in the situation of the first Reformers 
to inspire them with a high notion of their calling. Around 
them all the people lay buried in the profoundest ignorance, 
the grossest superstition, and the utmost corruption of morals. 
From this state they were suddenly aroused by the preachers 
of the Reformation ; the effect of whose ministry was a con- 
stant moral miracle. It was as if the gospel had been now 
published for the first time. The mentally blind began to 
see; the morally impotent to take up his bed and walk. 
Kings and emperors consulted these new apostles ; at their 
bidding, towns, provinces, whole kingdoms, flung off the yoke 



* Gen. MS., apud P. Henry, ii., Beil. ii. 



f See P.Henry, ii. 137. 



chap, iv.] calvin's idea of the pkiesthood. 



143 



of Rome ; nations negotiated and fought respecting their 
tenets. In all this there was abundance to natter and gratify, 
we will not say their spiritual pride, but their religious 
enthusiasm. But if any one was entitled to indulge such 
feelings it was undoubtedly Luther. In the vast effects 
which followed his labours it was natural that he should 
recognise the finger of God, and feel a noble and enthusiastic 
confidence in the success of his cause. In this part of his 
character he forms a striking contrast to the timid and 
irresolute Melancthon, whom he was frequently obliged to 
cheer on and encourage. When after the Diet of Augsburg 
the latter abandoned himself to despair and tears, Luther 
comforted and consoled him by his letters • bidding him lay 
aside all anxious thought and care, since their cause was not 
man's cause, but God's.* This feeling is characteristically 
expressed in a letter to Melancthon when he was attending 
the Diet of Ratisbon in 1541. The latter, whose somewhat 
hypochondriac temper was tinged with superstition, had been 
depressed by an accident to his hand from the upsetting of 
a carriage, which he considered a bad omen. " I have 
received, my dear Philip/' writes Luther, " your second letter, 
and though I am concerned at the accident to your hand, 
yet I believe neither in your omens nor my own. Our 
affairs are not conducted by chance, but by a settled design ; 
not our own felicitous one, forsooth, but that of God alone. 
The word runs, speech grows warm, hope sustains, faith 
conquers, so that we are quite out of breath ; and if we were 
not flesh, we might sleep and be idle, remembering that word 
of Moses, f The Lord fights for you while you are at rest.' "f 
But we here find Luther representing himself as the mere 
instrument and tool of the Almighty. He was far from 
assuming that personal importance which Calvin arrogated 
to himself; though, as the chief mover of the Reformation, 
he was more entitled to do so. The respect and submission 

* See Sleidan, De Statu, &c, lib. vii., p. 119. f Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 30. 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IV. 



exacted by Calvin far exceeded that claimed by other 
spiritual guides ; and was anything but compatible with the 
meekness and humility inculcated by the Gospel. The most 
trifling slights arid insults, such as most men would have 
overlooked with contempt, Calvin pursued with bitterness 
and acrimony. The Registers of Geneva abound with 
instances, which grew more frequent and more severe as 
his power became more consolidated. In 1551 we find 
Berthelier excommunicated by the consistory because he 
would not allow that he had done wrong in asserting that he 
was as good a man as Calvin. * Three men who had 
laughed during a sermon of his were imprisoned for three 
days and condemned to ask pardon of the consistory. Such 
proceedings are very numerous, and in the two years 1558 
and 1559, alone, 414 of them are recorded ! To impugn 
Calvin's doctrine, or the proceedings of the consistory, 
endangered life. For such an offence a Ferrarese lady, named 
Copa, was condemned, in 1559, to beg pardon of God and 
the magistrates, and to leave the city in twenty-four hours, 
on pain of being beheaded, f Calvin carried this system 
almost to a pitch of blasphemy ; so that he sometimes dared 
to justify the harshest and most unchristian-like conduct 
and words by the example of the apostles, and even of 
Christ himself! Thus, in his tract against Westphal, he 
says : " If I am to be called abusive because I have held up 
the mirror to master Joachim, who is too much blinded by 
his vices, in order that he might at length begin to be 
ashamed of himself, he ought to address the same reproach 
to the prophets, the apostles, and even to Christ himself, 
who have not scrupled to reproach with bitterness the 
adversaries of the true doctrine. We are agreed, on both 

* " Philibert Berthelier se plaint au Conseil de ce que le Consistoire lui a 
defendu la cene pour n' avoir pas voulu convenir qu'il avoit fait mal de soutenir 
qu'il e'toit aussi homme debien que Calvin."— Regist res, 27 Mars, 1551. Grenus, 
Fragmens Biographiques. f P. Henry, ii. 217. 



CHAP. IV.] 



HIS SEVERITIES. 



145 



sides, that abusive words and jests by no means become 
Christians. But since the prophets themselves do not 
altogether abstain from using scurrilities, and Christ in 
taxing deceivers and false doctors uses sharp terms, and the 
Holy Ghost everywhere attacks such people, crying out and 
sparing nothing : it is a foolish and inconsiderate question 
to ask whether we are at liberty to reprehend severely, 
roughly, and to good purpose, those who expose themselves 
to blame and infamy/ 5 * Even a modern biographer of 
Calvin, who has embraced his cause with great warmth, 
cannot help pointing out the impropriety of his using the 
term bitterness, with reference to the Holy Spirit, and his 
presumption in putting himself on a level with Christ and 
the Apostles. " Throughout," he observes, " great presump- 
tion prevails in his manner, mixed with a supercilious raillery 
which one cannot term Christian, and still less compare with 
the holy anger of our Lord."f 

The influence which Calvin acquired at Geneva was 
doubtless assisted by his extensive learning and great 
intellectual powers, which in most cases rendered him much 
superior to the members of the government. Hence he 
extended his interference even to political matters, in spite 
of the apparent separation between church and state which 
formed part of his own theory. Thus, for instance, we find 
him in 1558 directing the Two Hundred in their choice of 
syndics; and reading them a long lecture on the evils which 
had resulted from their former elections. J 

* Quoted by P. Henry, i. 460, from the French edition. 

f " Aigrement sollte er nicht sagen, denn hierin besteht grade der Unterschied 
der Apostel und der Reformatoren, dass der heilege Geist in seiner Reinheit 
keine saure Sch'arfe kannte. Es ist hochst anmassend sich mit den Aposteln 
auf dieselbe Linie zu stellen, wenn man, wie Calvin, schm'ahend und ironisch 
hohnend spricht. Im Ganzen herrscht eine grosse, mit ubermiithigem Scherz 
verbundene Anmassung in seiner Manier, die man wahrlich nicht chrjstlich 
nennen, noch weniger sie mit der heiligen Entriistung des Herrn vergleichen 
kann."— Ibid., p. 461, note. 

t " M. Calvin exhorte les CC a dire pour Syndics des gens de bien, et a se 

L 



146 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. IV. 



In order that the discipline established by Calvin might 
not be infringed, spies, or watchmen, were appointed in the 
country as well as in the city, whose office it was to give 
information of any breaches* of it, and who were paid out 
of the fines imposed. It is easy to see to what abuses and 
inconveniences such a system must be liable. The members 
of the consistory, also, made their regular reports, which 
became the subject of inquiry. Every unseemly word, even 
though spoken in the street, was reported. No respect was 
paid to persons. Members of the oldest and most distin- 
guished families were brought before the consistory, women 
as well as men, and examined in the tenderest points of 
conscience. An appeal to the council was seldom attended 
with any other result than an order to beg pardon of the 
consistory. The offender was then compelled to kneel down 
and receive a reprimand; and, in aggravated cases, he was 
excluded from the communion. The consistory frequently 
exhibited scenes of violence and abuse. Calvin would fly 
into a passion, and call the delinquents hypocrites and other 
hard names; which were frequently retorted on himself. Upon 
such occasions he would demand that the affair should be 
referred to the council, f The latter body, on the suggestion 
of the consistory, frequently imprisoned persons on bare 
suspicion. The supervision of the consistory extended to 
the most minute things, even to the directing people as to 
what books they should read. Thus we find an entry in the 
Registers, forbidding the perusal of <c Ainadis de Gaul/' and 
ordering the book to be destroyed. J They who did not 

souvenir en quel danger la Repubbque avoit e'te" les annees demieres pour avoir 
ete' gouvernee par de mauvais magistrats," &c. &e. — Registres, 4 Fevrier, 1558. 
Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 

* " On elit dans les villages des gens charge's d'obliger le peuple a aller au 
sermon." — Registres, 25 Avril, 1543. Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 

f P. Henry,ii.215,216. 

t " Pourceque plusieurs lisent Amadis de Gaul combien qu'il n'y ait que choses 
dissolues et mauvaises ; arrete de leur faire grandes remontrances, et que le dit 
livre soit gate et rompu." — Registres, 13 Mars, 1559. Grenus, Fragmens Biogra- 
pMques, under date. 



CHAP. IV.] 



HIS PRACTICAL DISCIPLINE. 



147 



come to clmrcli on Sunday were fined three sols. They who 
came after the sermon was begun were censured the first 
time and fined the second. They who swore by the body 
and blood of Christ were condemned to kiss the earth, to 
stand an hour in the pillory, and to pay a fine of three sols. 
He who denied God or his baptism was imprisoned nine 
days and whipped. Drunkenness was punished by consis- 
torial censures and a fine of three sols. The same punish- 
ment was inflicted on him who had invited another to the 
tavern. * 

The chief opposition to the establishment of Calvin's 
discipline sprang from the higher classes, and from his 
brother ministers. The latter, though they outwardly pre- 
tended to approve of it, secretly used all their endeavours 
to prevent its establishment, by representing to the council 
that it would considerably abridge their power, and thus 
become a means and help to sedition, f. On the other 
hand, the mass of the people, though fond of dancing and 
other dissipations, were willing to forego them, and to 
comply with the strict observances enjoined by the new 
scheme, in the hope that they would prove a means of 
humbling their superiors. The ordinances were finally 
passed on the 20th of November, 1541. J It appears that 
during their progress through the council, Calvin and the 
ministers were desirous of knowing what alterations had 
been made in them; but that body would not submit to 
this sort of interference, and ordered them to be forwarded 
at once to the council of Two Hundred. § 

Calvin, in a letter to Myconius, dated on the 15th of 
March, 1542, represents the measure which he had succeeded 
in carrying as still very imperfect and incomplete, and that 

* P. Henry, ii. 114, note. f See Ep. 54. 

J " Les ordonnances ont itk passees sans contradiction." — Registres, 20 Nov., 
1541. 

§ H Ordonne que a eux n'appartient de les revoir et que l'affaire soit remis s 
aux CC." — Registres, 9 Nov., 1541. P.Henry, ii., Beil. 5. 

L 2 



148 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. it» 



he had had the greatest difficulty in obtaining even this 
partial adoption of his views.* The council seem for some 
time to have contested with him the power of excommunica- 
tion. In an entry in the Registers, in March, 1543, we find 
the council affirming that the consistory has only the right 
of admonishing, and that the power of excommunicating is 
reserved to themselves : and, indeed, it was not till after 
Calvin's final triumph over the Libertine party, in 1555, that 
the consistory obtained the undisputed power of excommuni- 
cation, f Other parts of his scheme which Calvin failed in 
carrying out were the institution of synods, and making 
the clergy independent of the state for their revenues. 
Prom the want of synods, the last determination in matters 
of faith lay with the council, a thing altogether contrary to 
Calvin's principles. He also disapproved of the selection of 
elders being confined to members of the different councils, 
instead of being extended to the congregation generally. 
The excess in the number of lay elders over the clergy in 
the consistory seems, however, to have been his own plan. % 
In France his scheme developed itself in opposition to, and 
therefore quite independently of, the state ; and consequently, 
in that country, he was enabled to carry it out without 
mutilation. 

Not only was Calvin aware that the ecclesiastical polity he 
had established at Geneva was incomplete, he seems also 
to have felt that his scheme would not have suited large 
kingdoms. Thus, in a letter to the King of Poland (9th of 
December, 1554), he recognises the jurisdiction of an arch- 
bishop and bishops, and pronounces it to be in accordance 
with the practice of the ancient church. § And in like 

* Ep. 54. 

+ "Le Consistoire n'a que le droit d'admonester, et celui d'excommunier 
est reserve au Conseil." — Registres, 19 Mars, 3543. Grenus, Fragments Biogra- 
phiques, under date. J P. Henry, ii. 118. 

§ " The ancient church erected Patriarchates, and even assigned to single 
provinces certain primacies, that bishops might be more united by this bond of 



chap, iv.] calvin's discipline not perfected. 149 



manner, in his letter to the Protector Somerset, he finds no 
fault with the episcopal form of government established in 
England. Indeed, his own assumption of a quasi episcopacy 
shows that he held it necessary that the supreme administra- 
tion should be lodged in the hands of one person. 

Scarcely had Calvin finished his labours for the establish- 
ment of his discipline than we find him employed by the 
council to assist in drawing up a code of civil law.* The 
knowledge that he had at one time been designed for 
the legal profession probably led to his being charged with 
this commission, in which he had for his coadjutors Dr. 
Peter Fabri, the syndic Roset, and another person. From 
several entries in the Registers of Geneva, it would appear 
that he was employed in this labour the greater part of 
the year 1542; and by 1543 the new code of laws and 
ordinances seems to have been complete. It was based on 
the Franchise et Sentences de Payerne, and on different 
edicts which had been promulgated from time to time. 
Some new laws were added, and some old ones revived. 
The duty of each magistrate was defined, as well as the 
manner of his election. The new code thus established was 
observed in civil suits, and, where its provisions fell short, 
the Roman law was resorted to. It lasted until 1568, when 
another code was substituted, drawn up by Colladon, a 
native of Berri, and a distinguished jurisconsult, who had 

concord. And in like manner, if one archbishop should now preside over the 
kingdom of Poland, not indeed to domineer over the rest, nor to arrogate to 
himself their authority, but for the sake of order to preside over the synods, 
and to maintain a righteous union among his colleagues and brethren : there 
might then be provincial or civic bishops, whose duty it should particularly be to 
preserve order. For nature herself dictates that in every society one should 
be chosen to direct affairs." — Ep. 190. 

* "II (Calvin) fut charge le 21 Nov. (1541) avec trois conseillers de compiler 
des edits peur gouverner le peuple." " Mrs. Claude Roset, Calvin, et le docteur 
Fabri d'Evian sont charges de rediger les edits politiques." — Reghtres, 15 Mai, 1542. 
" On donne a Calvin un tonneau de vin vieux pour les peines qu'il prend de la 
ville." — Begistres, 17 Nov., 1 542. Grenus, Frctgmens Biograpliiques. 



150 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. IV. 



been admitted to the citizenship of Geneva in 1555.* 
Even in Colladon's revision, however, which was begnn in 
1560, Calvin had much influence. The smallest points did 
not escape his attention. There are minutes respecting 
danger from fire, instructions for the inspector of buildings, 
regarding the artillery, the watchmen on the towers, and 
the like.f In a Gotha manuscript quoted by Bretschneider, 
there are minute instructions in Calvin's hand- writing- 
respecting judicial proceedings, as well as a sketch of a 
general code of laws. J 

Calvin made his civil legislation subservient to his scheme 
of church polity. The object of both was to found a theo- 
cratic state resembling that of the Israelites under Moses, 
of which he himself was to be the high-priest and prophet. 
As early as 1516, Erasmus had observed with regret the 
tendency towards J udaism excited by the revival of Hebrew 
literature under the auspices of Keuchlin ; and had strongly 
characterised it as a pest the most dangerous to Christi- 
anity^ This preference for the Old Testament became a 
marked characteristic of Calvin and his followers. It 
was signally displayed by Knox and the Covenanters in 
Scotland, and subsequently by the English Puritans. || 
Calvin avows and justifies the adoption of the rigorous 
precepts of the Mosaic law in a letter to the Duchess of 
Ferrara, written in 1564.^[ But though his legislation was 
modelled on that of the Jewish lawgiver, it was conceived 
in a spirit of still greater severity. The following parallel 
is extracted from the work of Calvin's recent biographer, 
who will not be suspected of a design to give an unfa- 

* Senebier, Hist. litt. de Geneve, i. 343. f P. Henry, ii. 07. 

J Ibid.n., Beil. 3. § Erasmus, Ep. 207. 

|| So Ananias, in Ben Jonson's Alchemist : u All's heathen but the Hebrew." 
Tl " Cest que sur ce que je vous avois allegue que David nous instruict par son 
exemple de hair les ennemys de Bieu, vous respondez qu' c'estoit pour ce temps 
la du quel soubs la loy de rigueur il estoit permi de hair les ennemys. Or, 
Madame, ceste glose seroit pour renverser toute l'escriture,,et partant il la faut 
fair comme peste mortelle." Quoted by Dr. Henry, i. 452. 



CHAP. IV.] 



calvin's civil legislation. 



151 



vourable view of his legislation : " The rigour of the Old 
Testament, which, in announcing God's anger and justice, 
stepped forth on all occasions with the punishment of death 
against a stiff-necked people, manifestly prevails with Calvin. 
With him, as with Moses, the spiritual members of the state 
are judges. Both are jealous for God's honour, and there- 
fore Calvin, like Moses, punishes idolatry and blasphemy 
with death. Though the Mosaic laws do not mention high 
treason, properly so called — which, however, nevertheless 
occurs in the history of the Jewish state — Calvin places it 
in the same category with treason against God. To strike or 
curse a parent is in both codes a capital offence. In both 
theft is only followed by loss of freedom. Both rigorously 
punish unchastity, and adultery even with death. Moses 
does not mention suicide; by Calvin it is branded with 
infamy. With Moses the severest punishment is stoning ; 
with Calvin death by fire. Moses burnt only the corpse of 
the criminal. Both use degradation as a means of punish- 
ment ; but infamy, or exclusion from the community, does 
not appear in the Mosaic law." * 

But although Calvin adopted all the rigorous precepts of 
the Jewish dispensation, and indeed went so far in many 
instances as to make the code of Moses paramount to the law 
of Christ, yet it is remarkable that he was utterly averse to 
that grandeur and ceremony of worship which distinguished 
the Mosaic ritual. The source of both these characteristics of 
his system must perhaps be sought in his determination to 
oppose the practice of Rome at every point ; for they cannot 
be reconciled with a consistent study of the Old Testament. 

His oligarchical sentiments have been already adverted 
to; and he followed their guidance in his civil legislation. 
It seems to have been by his advice that the meetings of the 
general assembly of burgesses were restricted to two formal 
ones in the course of the year. It now came to be looked 

* P. Henry, Lchen Calvins, ii. 68, 



152 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IV. 



upon as a sign of treasonable designs if any one desired an 
extraordinary meeting of that assembly. Another of bis 
innovations upon tbe ancient constitution was that nothing 
should be submitted to that body which had not been pre- 
viously discussed in the council of Two Hundred ; that 
nothing should be brought before the Two Hundred which 
had not been first submitted to the Sixty ; and that nothing 
should be introduced into the latter assembly without the 
sanction of the ordinary council. * The obvious effect of these 
regulations was to centralise all power in the ordinary council; 
and we have already seen the intimate connexion between 
that body and the consistory. Thus Calvin gradually 
became, by means of the influence which he had acquired, the 
main-spring, as it were, of the Genevese republic, which set 
all its wheels in motion. When the existing laws did not 
suffice for his purpose, he would appear before the council, 
and demand a new law in the name of the consistory ; and 
this he seldom failed to obtain, f 

As his power increased, he gradually enhanced the 
rigour of the laws. Before his return to Geneva adultery 
had been punished only with a short imprisonment and a 
trifling fine ; Calvin, as we have said, made it death, at least 
after a second offence. Spon, in his History of Geneva, J 
recounts the two following instances which occurred in the 
year 1560, and which he compares with the severe virtue 
of ancient Rome. The council having ordered a citizen 
to be whipped for the crime of adultery, he appealed to 
the Two Hundred, who, he hoped, would absolve him. 
But, on revising his process, that body finding that he 
had already been once reproved for the same offence, to 
the great surprise of the criminal, condemned him to death. 
Shortly afterwards a banker was executed for the same 
crime, who died with great repentance, and blessing God 
that justice was so well maintained. We have already 

* Leben Calvins, ii. 65. f Ibid., p. 67. J Vol. ii., p. 90. 



CHAP. IV.] 



RIGOUR OF HIS LAWS. 



153 



adverted to the severity with which Calvin pursued all 
offences against religion and against his own personal 
authority, as well as that of the consistory ; instances of 
which will present themselves in the sequel of this narra- 
tive. He would have carried these severities much further, 
but that the council of Two Hundred sometimes stepped 
in and prevented him.* He left the old laws against heresy 
on the statute-book, as well as the punishment of burn- 
ing for witchcraft, and the barbarous custom of torture, f 

That Calvin had to deal with a perverse and corrupt people 
must be admitted ; but it may be doubted whether he took the 
best method of reforming them. Education and example would 
have done more to effect this object than all these atrocious 
severities, and these precise and vexatious regulations, which 
only caused the evil-disposed to add hypocrisy to their other 
vices. A recent Genevese writer has remarked : " To those who 
imagine that Calvin did nothing but good, I could produce 
our registers, covered with records of illegitimate children, 
which were exposed in all parts of the town and country; 
hideous trials for obscenity ; wills, in which fathers and 
mothers accuse their children not only of errors but of crimes ; 
agreements before notaries between young women and their 
lovers, in which the latter, even in the presence of the parents 
of their paramours, make them an allowance for the education 
of their illegitimate offspring ; I could instance multitudes of 
forced marriages, in which the delinquents were conducted 
from the prison to the church ; mothers who abandoned their 
children to the hospital, whilst they themselves lived in 
abundance with a second husband ; bundles of law-suits 
between brothers ; heaps of secret negotiations ; men and 
women burnt for witchcraft; sentences of death in fright- 
ful numbers; and all these things among the generation 
nourished by the mystic manna of Calvin." J 

* See P. Henry, ii. 69. f Ibid., p. 75. 

% Galiffe, Notices Genealogiques, torn, iii., Preface, quoted by P. Henry, ii. 78, 
note. 



154 



LIFE OF JOHN CALY1N. 



[chap. V. 



CHAPTER V. 

Plague and famine at Geneva — Calvin answers the Sorbonne — Replies to 
Pighius — Melancthon's opinions on Free Will — Calvin's Tract on Relics — 
Farel at Metz — Caroli's machinations — Sebastian Castellio — Calvin's Tract 
" De Reformanda Ecclesia"— His remarks on the Pope's Letter to the 
Emperor — Tracts against the Anabaptists and Libertines — The Queen of 
Navarre offended — Luther and the Swiss Church — Calvin's opinion of 
Luther — Luther's violence — Calvin's Tracts against the Nicodemites. 

In 1542 Geneva was assailed by famine and pestilence, 
two terrible calamities which frequently walk hand in hand. 
These evils were aggravated by the great influx of refugees ; 
for Calvin's residence at Geneva had already caused it to be 
regarded as the head quarters of the Reformed religion, 
especially amongst the French who were obliged to fly their 
country on account of the persecutions. The lazaretto or 
pest-house, which lay without the walls, was crowded with 
the sick ; and it became necessary that a minister should 
attend there, to administer the last consolations of religion to 
the dying. Beza informs us* that on this occasion Calvin, 
Sebastian Castellio, and Pierre Blanchet, offered their services, 
whilst the rest of the ministers shrunk back ; that the lot 
having fallen upon Castellio, he altered his mind, and refused 
the office; that hereupon Blanchet volunteered to go; and that 
both he and the council prevented Calvin, much against his 
will, from again drawing lots. This, however, does not agree 
with the account which Calvin himself gives of this matter. 
In a letter to Viret, written apparently in October, 1542, he 
says : " The plague begins to gain strength here, and few 
whom it attacks escape. One of our college was to be 



* Vita Calv., anno 1542. 



chap, v.] PLAGUE AND FAMINE AT GENEVA. 



155 



appointed to attend the sick; but as Pierre (Blanchet) offered 
himself, we all readily allowed him to go.* If anything 
happens to him, / fear it will be my turn to run the risk. 
For, as you observe, since we are debtors to each member of 
the church, we cannot neglect those who need our ministry. 
And though I am not of opinion that we should desert the 
very body of the church in our desire to serve a part of it ; 
nevertheless, so long as we hold this office, I do not see what 
excuse we can allege; if from fear of danger, we abandon those 
who stand in most need of our assistance." f 

This letter does not betray any great alacrity to volunteer 
for the post of danger, but rather a very evident desire to 
escape from it ; and the context shows plainly enough that 
Calvin did not make an offer to go to the hospital, as Beza 
would have us to believe. In eight or nine months Blanchet 
fell a victim to his philanthropy, and Calvin found himself in 
the situation which he had dreaded. It does not appear, 
however, that he now offered his services. It was on this 
occasion, and not in the autumn, that Castellio offered to go. J 
Now it must be remembered that Castellio was not a minister 
of the Genevese church, but merely regent of the schools ; and 
consequently it was no part of his duty to administer religious 
consolation to the dying. He was desirous, however, of becom- 
ing a minister ; and probably thought that so disinterested 
an offer might pave the way to that office : and indeed the 
wording of the entry in which it is recorded would lead us to 
infer that such was his motive. He was probably rejected as 
not qualified. Beza must have known that Castellio was not 
a minister ; and it is therefore difficult to assign a motive 
for his dragging CastelhVs name forward on this occasion, 
unless it were to make an invidious insinuation against him. 

* " Facile omnes passi sumus." f MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, ii. Beil. 1. 

J "Chatillon regent s'offre pour etre ministre de Thopital pestilentiel. 
M. Gautier remarque que plusieurs ministres refusoient d'yaller disant qu'ils 
iroient plutot au diable." — Registres, 1 Mai, 1543. Grenus, Fragmem Biogra- 
phigues. 



156 



LIFE OF JOHN GAL YIN. 



[chap. v. 



In the entry referred to we find it stated that M. Gautier 
remarked that many of the ministers refused to repair to the 

hospital, and said that they would rather go to the d .* 

On the first of June the ministers were ordered to assemble, 
and to elect from their body the most proper person to dis- 
charge this office ; but with a special exception in favour of 
Calvin, who, it was stated, was necessary to the church, f 
Shortly afterwards, Calvin and his brother ministers appeared 
before the council to explain in what manner they had obeyed 
their injunctions. They are represented as stating that to go to 
the pest-house it was necessary to be firm and not timid ; and 
that they had found a Frenchman, a faithful brother, whom 
they presented for that purpose, if the council found it agree- 
able. And although it was their duty to serve God and his 
church as well in necessity as in prosperity, even unto death ; 
yet they confessed that in this point they were wanting to their 
duty. The council seems to have dismissed them with some 
indignation, and a debate appears to have ensued whether they 
should be further heard. This was resolved in the affirmative, 
but Calvin was not required to appear with the rest : " because 
he was wanted to serve in the church, to answer the questions 
of travellers, and to give his advice to the council The 
remaining ministers again appeared before the council, and 
confessed; — c< that God had not yet bestowed on them the grace 
of strength and fortitude sufficient to go to the hospital, and 
begged to be excused." Only one minister, M. de Geneton, 
professed himself ready, provided the will of God were taken 
in the election, and that the lot fell upon him. The council 
concluded its sitting by the following resolution : "Resolved, 

* Dr. P. Henry, ii. 42, note, gives this entry somewhat differently as follows : 
— " 1 Mai, 1543. M. Calvin dit que M. Bastien Chatillon est tout pret pour aller 
en Y hopital pestilentiel, et pretend qu'il y a des predicans qui ont dit que plutot 
aller a l'hopital pestilentiel ils voudroient etre aux diable. Resolu de les de- 
mander demain et leur faire bonnes remontrances." If this be correct, it was 
hardly fair in Calvin to denounce his brethren for an unwillingness in which 
he himself partook. t Registres, 1 Juin. 



chap, v.] CALVIN ANSWEKS THE SOKBONNE. 



157 



to pray to God to give the ministers more constancy in 
future."* 

Without inquiring how far Calvin acted consistently with 
his duty and professions in seeking, or at all events in 
accepting, this immunity, we cannot at least concede to him 
that praise for a generous self-devotion which Beza's account 
of the matter would demand. FareFs conduct at Neuf- 
chatel, on a like occasion, forms a perfect contrast to that of 
his former colleague. He visited the sick daily, poor and 
rich, friend or foe, without distinction, f 

Having concluded his legislative labours, Calvin had now 
more time to devote to literary pursuits. From this period 
to the end of his life he was at intervals more or less 
engaged in controversies. In the year 1542 the Sorhonne 
published a summary of their doctrines in twenty-five 
articles, which were sanctioned by an edict of the French 
king. To these Calvin replied in the same year in his 
"Antidoton adversus ArticulosFacultatis theologicce Sorbonicte," 
or " Antidote against the Articles of the Sorbonne ; 33 and 
which, in the following year, he translated into French. 
These articles he prints separately, appending to each an 
ironical proof, which at first sight the reader might take to 
be seriously meant; and then subjoins his Antidote. This 
piece displays some humour. The following will suffice to 
give the reader a specimen of the style. % 

"Article xii. — Concerning the invocation of saints. It is 
holy, and particularly acceptable to God, to pray to the 
blessed mother of our Lord, and to the saints which are in 
heaven, that they may be our advocates and intercessors with 
God. 

" This is proved as follows : what should the saints do in 
heaven if they did not pray for us ? But if they pray for us, 
then must we pray to them. The Lutherans deny this 

* The preceding entries are quoted by P. Henry, ii. 43, note, 
f Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, ii. 33. J See Calvin, Opera, viii. 195, B. 



158 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



consequence, but it may be demonstrated as follows. The 
saints resemble God. But God wills that we pray to him. 
Therefore the saints do so likewise. As for the gibe of the 
Lutherans, that we make the saints with very long ears 
(valde auritos) the solution is easy. It is because they see 
all that is done on earth by the reflection which they have 
from the irradiation of God. A second proof: because the 
pagans always had minor gods for their intercessors ; and it 
is not reasonable that Christians should have fewer privileges 
than heathens. Whence their error was corrected in this 
manner, viz., by the honours which they offered to their idols 
being transferred to the saints : as when the Pope changed 
the name of the temple which used to be called the Pan- 
theon. And in like manner from the multitude of festivals 
it came to pass that, in contempt of the gentiles, the Chris- 
tians, in celebrating them, got drunk in honour of the 
saints." 

In the same year Calvin was employed in preparing his 
answer to Pighius's book on the Freedom of the Will.* 
Albert Pighius was a native of Campen, in Over-Yssel, and 
had studied at Louvain and Cologne, where he attained 
considerable proficiency in mathematics and theology. 
He had been a pupil of Adrian's, the tutor of Charles V., 
whom that emperor afterwards procured to be elected to the 
papal throne. He was a fanatical defender of the papal 
power; and the zeal with which he espoused this cause 
obtained him much respect and consideration, not only from 
Pope Adrian VI., but from his successors, Clement VII. and 
Paul III. Pighius's work, in which he sought to renew the 
controversy which had been formerly carried on between 
Luther and Erasmus on the same subject, was divided into 
ten books ; of which the first six related to the question of 

* Defer) sio sance et orthodoxce Doctrines de Servitute et Liberatione humani Arbi- 
trii adversus Calumnias Alberti Pighii, Campensis. Authore J. Calvino. Geneva, 
1543. 



CHAP. V.] 



HE REPLIES TO PIGHIUS. 



159 



the freedom of the will, and the remaining four embraced 
that of predestination. Calvin was desirous of getting his 
answer ready by the approaching Frankfort fair ; and there- 
fore confined himself to the former portion of Pighius' s book, 
or that relating to the will ; with the intention of examining 
the question of predestination at some future opportunity.* 
Dr. Henry states that Calvin's treatise had the effect of 
converting his opponent, f That on so subtle and intricate 
a question, he should have overcome all that obstinacy and 
love of his own opinions which usually characterise a con- 
troversialist, fortified, too, as they were in this instance, by 
religious prejudice and animosity, would indeed have been 
an extraordinary triumph : but unfortunately there is one 
circumstance which prevents our believing that it was 
achieved. Pighius was dead before Calvin's book was 
published. A letter of John Vorstius de Lambeca, dean 
of the cathedral of Utrecht, and one of the executors of 
Pighius, states that he expired on the 26th of December, 
1542; and ascribes his decease to the indefatigable labour 
which he exerted, while in a bad state of health, in defending 
himself from an attack which Bucer had made upon him. J 
Calvin's dedication of his book to Melancthon is dated in 
February, 1543, and therefore Pighius must have been dead 
almost two months before it saw the light. It is true that 
in this dedication Calvin speaks of his adversary as if he were 
still alive ; and that in the beginning of his book " On the Eter- 
nal Predestination of God," he states that Pighius died shortly 

* See the tract, Opera, viii. 118, A. 

f " Merkwurdig ist fur uns dieser Pighius nur weil er sich durch das Lesen 
der Schrift Calvins von dessen Ansicht uberzeugen liess." — Leben Oalvins, ii. 289. 
See also the table of contents, Th. ii., cap. 7. " Calvin — setzt den Streit Luthers 
mit Erasmus gegen Pighius von Campen fort, welcher letztere uberzeugt wird." 

X Bayle, Pighius, rem. F. A letter of Cardinal Sadolet's, dated June 17th, 
1543, also alludes to his death (Ibid., rem. C.) The title of Bucer's work was, 
" De vera Ecclesiarum in Doctrind, Ceremoniis et Disciplind Reconciliatione, una 
cum Responsione ad Calumnias A Iberti Pighii, Campensis, contra Confessionem et 
Apologiam Protestantium nuper vulgatas" &c. 



1G0 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. v. 



after his former answer to him had been published.* But 
these circumstances cannot be considered as invalidating the 
direct evidence adduced by Bayle. Owing to the slowness 
of communication in those days, Calvin might very well have 
been ignorant in February that his opponent had died 
towards the end of the preceding December; and as nine 
years elapsed before he wrote his second book against him, 
there is nothing extraordinary in his having forgotten — if, 
indeed, he had ever known — the exact period of Pighius's 
decease. The story rests on the authority of Crakanthorpe, 
who says in his " Defensio Ecclesice Anglican® " that Pighius, 
by turning over Calvin's " Institutes " and other works, for the 
purpose of refuting them, became himself a Calvinist in one 
of the chief articles of faith, f The story thus vaguely told 
gains more probability ; and it is somewhat strengthened by 
the circumstance that the opinions of Pighius do not seem to 
have been regarded as altogether orthodox by the Romish 
Church. J The article alluded to may be that of the 
eucharist : but if by the phrase " one of the chief articles 
of faith," Crakanthorpe intended to allude to the dogma of 
predestination, we find as much difficulty as ever; for had 
Pighius really been a convert to Calvin's opinion on that 
head, it is not very probable that the latter should have 
written a book nine years after his death for the purpose of 
confuting him ; and in which he not only takes no credit for 
his triumph, but loads his adversary with the grossest abuse. 
And, indeed, the story has been long ago rejected by 
Gerdesius.§ 

* " Pighius died a little after my book was published. Wherefore, not to 
insult a dead dog, I applied myself to other lucubrations." — Opera, viii. 594. 

*J* Quoted by Ancillon (Melan. crit., ii. 43), who says, that if those who 
wrote against Calvin meditated upon his works, " II arriveroit peut-etre tres 
souvent ce qui est arrive a Albertus Pighius, lequel comme le dit Crakanthorpe, 
au ch. 69, de son livre, Defensio Ecclesice Anglicance contra Arcliiep. Spalatensem: 
e dum refellendi studio Calvini Institutiones et scripta evolvit, in uno ex prsecipuis 
fidei dogmatibus faetus est ipse Calvinianus.'' " J Bayle, 1. c. 

§ Hist. Evangelii Henovati, hi. § 50. 



chap, v.] MELANCTHON'S OPINIONS ON FREE WILL. 161 



In the dedication of this work to Melanethon, Calvin states 
that he offered it to him for two reasons : first, because 
he knew it would be agreeable, from the personal friend- 
ship which Melanethon bore him; and secondly, because 
it contained a defence of the sound doctrine. He also 
intimates that at some former period Melanethon had 
advised him to answer Pighius, in case that author should 
continue his attacks. It is probable that something of 
this sort had passed in conversation between the two 
Reformers when they met either at Frankfort or Worms ; 
but it is well known that the opinions of Melanethon on 

^ that difficult and important question underwent a gradual 
change. Like Luther and most of the other Reformers, he 
had at first adopted the views of St. Augustin in their 

^fullest extent; and in the first edition of his " Loci Theolo- 
gici," published in 1525, when he was only 24 years of age, 
had utterly denied all freedom of the will. * In the second 
edition, however, which appeared in 1535, it is certain that 

i he allowed it a limited freedom, that, namely, of assent and 
concurrence, f In the third edition, published in 1544, 
he went a step further, and admitted the freedom of the will 
and the operation of contingency : to which he was led 
chiefly by the consideration that, on the contrary hypo- 
thesis, sin must be ascribed to the will of God. J In the 
fourth edition, which appeared in 1548, he formally adopted 
the definition of Erasmus. § 

* See Matthes, Lehen Melancthons, p. 54. Lawrence, Hampton Lectures, 
serm. iv., note 6. 

+ Thus we find the following passage in this edition : " Here there are three 
concurrent causes of a good action : the word of God, the Holy Ghost, and the 
human will, assenting to the word of God." 

£ u Having established this proposition, that God neither causes nor wills sin, 
it follows that there is contingency ; that is, that all things that happen do not 
[ happen necessarily. For since sin sprang from the will of the devil and man, 
and not from that of God, it follows that our wills were so formed that they 
were capable of not sinning. But the freedom of the will is the cause of the 
! contingency of our actions." § Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 55, et seq. 

M 



162 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. v. 



It is curious to observe the different effects which medita- 
tion on this abstruse subject produced on the minds of 
Calvin and Melancthon. The latter was as competent as 
the former to appreciate the logical force of the argument 
in favour of necessity ; yet, as he grew in years and wisdom, 
he looked beyond the mere links of the deduction, and 
doubted a conclusion of human reason which led to such 
pernicious and absurd consequences. Calvin, on the con- 
trary, with his natural love for hypothesis and dogmatism, 
clung the faster to his first convictions the more he advanced 
in life. To his mind the idea of the Divine Being which 
such a doctrine implies presented nothing repulsive. One 
who could visit the sins of mankind with temporal punish- 
ments such as have been described in the preceding chapter, 
and think them congenial with the spirit of Christianity, was 
not unnaturally led to insist upon the theory of absolute 
decrees. 

Melancthon replied to Calvin's dedication in a letter dated 
on the 11th of May, 1543.* He acknowledges in suitable 
terms the compliment paid to him ; but the letter bears 
evidence of the change which had already taken place in his 
opinions. Convinced by experience that, to the great mass of 
mankind, speculations on this subject would be either unin- 
telligible or mischievous, and therefore useless or worse, he 
aims in this letter to divert Calvin from pursuing them. He 
intimates that amid the disputes which attended on the birth 
of the Reformation his own aim had ever been to lay aside 
all that was not adapted, by its simplicity, to be easily under- 
stood, and therefore to be practically useful. He points out 
that the Catholics had taken courage from the divisions 
among the Protestants, and insists on the necessity for the 
latter abandoning all minor differences, and uniting in 
defence of their principal tenets. He exhorts Calvin, in 
preference to treating the subject of predestination, to write 

* Calvin, Epp. et Eesp., Ep. 48. 



CHAP. V.] 



calvin's teact on relics. 



163 



on the revelation of our Saviour, on the unperceived wisdom 
of the Church, on the greatness of human infirmity, on 
repentance, and faith in mercy promised through Christ, on 
genuine prayer, and the Church's true use and virtue, on the 
holiness of the Sacraments, on the proper form of ecclesiastical 
government as established by the Apostles, and, lastly, on 
eternal life. " I wish," he continues, " you would transfer 
your eloquence to the adorDing of these momentous sub- 
jects ; by which our friends would be strengthened, our 
enemies terrified, and the weak encouraged : for who in these 
days possesses a more forcible or splendid style of disputation?" 

There will be occasion, however, to refer to this letter 
further on; and therefore at present it is only necessary to 
observe that, from some of the concluding remarks, we may 
infer that at this time Melancthon's principal objection to the 
doctrine lay in its practical inconvenience. " I do not write 
this letter," he concludes, " to dictate to you who are so 
learned a man, and so well versed in all the exercises of piety. 
I am persuaded, indeed, that it agrees with your sentiments, 
though less subtle (Trax^repa), and more adapted for use." 

In the same year with his answer to Pighius appeared 
Calvin's tract on relics,* in which he enumerates various 
false specimens preserved in cathedrals and other places 
throughout Europe ; going through those relating to Christ, 
the Virgin, the Apostles, &c, in order. It was originally 
written in French ; but a Latin translation, from the hand 
of Nicholas de Gallars, was published at Geneva in 1548. 
On the 9th of October, 1543, Calvin addressed an epistle to 
the Reformed Church, of Montbelliard respecting certain 
points of discipline, which is remarkable for the moderation 
of its tone, f 

In the summer of that year an adventure of his friend 

* " Avertissement tres utile du grand profit qui reviendroit a la Chrestiente 
s'il se faisait inventaire de tous les corps saints et reliques qui sont tant en 
Italie qu'en France," &c. f Ep. 51. 

M 2 



164 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. t. 



Farel's caused Calvin to revisit Strasburgh for a short time. 
The particulars of this affair are briefly as follows : — 

Since the year 1524, Metz, at that time a free and imperial 
city, had always contained a small number of Protestants ; 
who, however, met with much discouragement and opposition. 
In 1542 their prospects were assuming a brighter appearance. 
Some of the Dominicans had begun of their own accord to 
preach the Reformed doctrines ; to which also Gaspar de Huy, 
the newly elected sheriff or burgomaster, was inclined. De 
Huy and his brother permitted the Protestants to assemble in 
their houses for worship ; and nothing seemed wanting to 
the organisation of a regular church but an efficient minister. 
One had been invited from Morsee, but he was deficient in 
the requisite courage. Under these circumstances Farel, 
with his usual boldness and zeal, determined to try what he 
could effect ; a resolution which met with the entire approval 
of Calvin, who thought nobody better qualified for such an 
undertaking than his experienced and dauntless friend.* 
Farel arrived at Metz early in September, and delivered his 
first sermon in the churchyard of the Dominicans. In vain 
the monks tried to drown his voice by ringing their bells ; 
the powerful tones of Farel, raised to a pitch of hoarseness, 
prevailed above the din.f On the following day three 
thousand persons assembled to hear him preach ; but by the 
advice of some of the principal among the Reformed party, 
including De Huy himself, Farel consented to postpone his 
address till matters had assumed a more tranquil aspect. The 
news of Farel' s arrival had reached the ears of the council, 
who summoned him before them. He was asked by whose 
orders he preached ? " By the order," said Farel, " of Jesus 
Christ, and at the requisition of his members : " but he could 
not be brought to mention any names. He then dilated with 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Fareh, ii. 50. 
f Bucer Calvino, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 37. This letter is erroneously dated 
in 1541. 



CHAP. V.] 



FAREL AT METZ. 



165 



force and unction on the sacred nature of his calling, and 
bade the council to be mindful of their duty. Whilst the 
latter were deliberating as to what they should do with him, 
his friends, alarmed for his safety, led him home ; and placing 
a man who bore some resemblance to him in size and 
appearance upon a horse, pretended to conduct him out of 
the town. Meanwhile Farel lay concealed, waiting the result 
of a message which had been dispatched to Strasburgh for 
support and assistance. The Strasburghers sent a message to 
the Elector of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse requesting 
that that portion of the citizens of Metz which had embraced 
the Reformed tenets might be admitted into the Protestant 
league. This was approved of by the Landgrave ; who, without 
waiting for the reply of the Elector, sent an ambassador, 
accompanied with two others from Frankfort and Strasburgh, 
to request the government of Metz to allow the Protestants 
of that city to have one church, and the free exercise of their 
religion. The council refused to receive these ambassadors, 
and it was thought expedient that Farel should withdraw. 
He accordingly retired to the neighbouring town of Gorze ; 
where, under the protection of William, Count Furstenberg, 
he exercised his ministry without opposition. Even here, 
however, his uncontrollable zeal led him into an awkward 
adventure. A Franciscan descanting in the pulpit on the 
eternal virginity of Mary, Farel publicly gave him the lie. 
Hereupon the women who were present set upon him and 
dragged him about by the hair of his head and beard ; and 
he would probably have paid for his rashness with his life, 
had he not been rescued by a Captain Frank.* 

The consequences of this adventure obliged Farel to keep 
his room for some time. When in a condition to come out 
he again resumed his ministry, and his sermons were attended 
by considerable numbers from Metz. Enraged at his success, 
the Roman Catholics of that city formed the detestable design 

* Kirchhofer, ii. 55. 



166 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



of massacring him and his congregation. The renegade Caroli 
seems to have been at the head of this plot. At his instiga- 
tion the Duke of Guise sent a company of infantry, together 
with some cavalry, to fall upon the congregation at Gorze; 
which on Easter day, 1543, had assembled to the number of 
300 to celebrate the Lord's Supper.* Service was ended, and 
the congregation preparing to depart, when suddenly the 
trumpet was heard; and Guise's band, led by his son the Duke 
d' Aumale, fell upon the helpless and unsuspecting multitude. 
Numbers were slaughtered, and it was with difficulty that Furs- 
tenberg and Far el escaped into the castle ; whence the count 
afterwards got Farel removed, at considerable hazard, to Stras- 
burgh, with a waggon-load of the wounded. This foul and 
cowardly massacre is said to have been sanctioned by the 
French king.f 

The Protestant princes and states of the empire now 
warmly took up the cause of their brethren at Metz ; and in 
a convention held at Strasburgh, they obtained from the 
magistrates of the former city not only that those who had 
been obliged to fly should be reinstated in their houses and 
property, but that they should be allowed the free exercise of 
their religion, and that a church should be assigned to them 
for that purpose. This privilege, however, they enjoyed but 
a short time. Caroli, who had missed the chief object of his 
diabolical plot, now attacked Farel and the Protestants of 
Metz in another way ; and endeavoured to weaken their cause 
with the German princes by throwing suspicion on Farel' s 
tenets respecting the eucharist. Encouraged by the clergy 
and council of Metz, his insolence rose to such a pitch that he 
challenged Farel to dispute with him either before the Pope, 
or the Council of Trent, or the theologians of the French 
universities, or those of Salamanca or Alcala in Spain, or 
finally, if those were too distant, either at Louvain or Padua. 

* Ruchat, v. 211. 

I f " Non abnuente neque improbante Galliarum rege." — Gefdesius, iv. 149. 



CHAP. V.] 



carolt's machinations. 



1G7 



The dispute was to be conducted at the risk of life on both 
sides ; for which purpose Caroli was to constitute himself a 
prisoner at Metz, and Farel to place himself in the hands of 
the French king. Caroli forwarded this citation to the Pope, 
and to the principal European powers, as well as to the 
universities before mentioned.* 

Farel answered this absurd challenge with moderation and 
good temper. He ridiculed the idea of making himself a 
prisoner ; but nevertheless declared his willingness to dispute 
with Caroli at Metz, provided Calvin and Viret, whom Caroli 
had also attacked, should be heard at the same time. The 
councils of Berne and Geneva were unwilling that their 
ministers should be exposed to this risk. Still, in order 
that Caroli night not claim a vain-glorious triumph, it was 
thought advisable that Calvin should proceed to Strasburgh, 
and endeavour to procure a conference. Both he and Farel 
appeared before the council of that city, and demanded a safe 
conduct to Metz. But this could not be obtained; and after 
spending six weeks at Strasburgh, to no purpose, during which 
he addressed three letters to the council of Geneva, Calvin at 
length returned at their request. He and Farel never again 
came into contact with Caroli, who remained some time 
longer at Metz. f This apostate subsequently abandoned 
himself to a life of profligacy ; and is said to have died of a 
disgraceful malady in a hospital at Borne. J 

In the following November, Farel paid a visit to Geneva. 
The persecutions which he had undergone at Metz manifested 
themselves in the state of his apparel ; and the council voted 
him a new suit, after the fashion of Calvin's. Farel appeared 
before that body and admonished them as to their lives, 
exhorting them to maintain justice, and to reverence the 
word of God ; but he declined their present, and also their 
invitation to him to take up his residence at Geneva. 
The suit seems to have been put in Calvin's keeping till it 

* Kirchhofer, ii. 64. f Ibid., p. 71. t Ruchat, v. 134. 



168 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. v. 



should find a wearer ; and in December he wrote to Farel to 
banish his scruples and accept of it.* 

The subject of education had occupied Calvin's attention 
soon after his return to Geneva, as an important auxiliary to 
his civil and ecclesiastical reforms. In November, 1541, he 
procured his old master, Maturin Cordier, to be appointed 
rector of the schools. The Franciscan convent (Couvent de 
Rive) was assigned him for a residence, together with a 
salary of 400 florins, besides what payments he might obtain 
from the scholars. After a few months, however, Cordier 
seems to have resigned ; for early in the following spring we 
find the celebrated Castellio, whose name has been already 
mentioned in connexion with the lazaretto, invited to Geneva 
to fill the same post. Bastien de Chatillon, for so he is 
called in the Registers of Geneva, but who assumed, as he 
himself admits, out of vanity, the more classical name of 
Castalio, which has been familiarised into Castellio, was 
born in the year 1515, either in Savoy, or more probably at 
Chatillon in Bresse. He had been tutor to some noblemen 
at Lyons, where he taught the Greek tongue; but Calvin 
first became acquainted with him at Strasburgh, where they 
both lodged in the same house. Calvin was much struck 
with CastelhVs genius and learning, and was hence led to 
procure for him the situation alluded to. He was indeed 
a true type of the scholar of the sixteenth century ; of deep 
and varied learning, of boundless industry, and whose 
literary ardour neither poverty nor misfortune could damp. 
The following works may be mentioned, as showing the 
extent and variety of his studies : — Dialogues, embracing the 
contents of scriptural history ; a translation of the Sibylline 
oracles ; a Latin version of the Pentateuch ; a translation of 
the Psalms and other scriptural songs ; a Greek poem on the 
life of John the Baptist - } a description of the prophet Jonas 

* " The suit is at my house till some one be found to take it. Your refusing 
it was all very well ; but you may now very properly accept of it." — MS. Gen., 
apud P. Henry, ii. 40. 



CHAP. V.] 



SEBASTIAN CASTELLIO. 



169 



in Latin verse ; translations from Homer, Xenophon, and 
St. Cyril ; and of some of the Italian writings of Bernardin 
Ochino into Latin. In 1551, he published a Latin version of 
the Bible, remarkable for the elegance of its style; which, 
however, was carried to a degree of affectation quite out of 
keeping with the sublime simplicity of the original. Thus he 
substituted classical for scriptural terms ; as lotio for baptismus, 
genius for angelus, respublica for ecclesia, collegium for syna- 
goge, &c. His introduction and notes are said to display much 
learning. He entertained some singular opinions respect- 
ing the imperfections of Scripture; and thought that the 
writings of St. Paul, from his superior education, contained 
a more elevated theology than other parts of the New Testa- 
ment.* He was also the author of several controversial tracts. 

Although not a minister, Castellio was desirous of becoming 
one ; and was thus led to devote much time to the study of 
theology. His labours in this way brought him into 
collision with Calvin, who was not a man to endure any 
views which differed from his own. The first public trace 
of any ill feeling between them occurs in an entry in the 
Registers under date of the 14th of January, 1544; which 
states that Calvin had represented to the council, that 
Bastien (Castellio), the rector of the schools, was a very 
learned man ; but that he held certain opinions which 
disqualified him for the ministry. It is also stated that he 
was dissatisfied with his salary of 450 florins. From another 
entry, on the 28th of the same month, it appears that the 
principal subject of disagreement between him and Calvin 
was the Song of Solomon; which Castellio declared to be a 
poem of a loose and obscene description composed in 
Solomon's youth, and that it ought to be struck out of the 
Canon. He also objected to the passage in the Creed 
respecting Christ's descent into hell, f These disputes, 

* Trechsel, Antitr., i. 208, et seq. P. Henry, ii. 383, note, 
f These entries will be found in P. Henry, ii. 385, note. 



170 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



however, between him and Calvin had an earlier origin; and 
seem to have arisen soon after Castellio came to Geneva, on 
the occasion of a French translation of the New Testament 
which he was preparing. In a letter to Viret, written in 
1542, Calvin says : " I will tell you a nice story about 
Sebastian, which will make you at once merry and angry. 
He came to me the other day and asked if I would allow his 
edition of the New Testament to be published. I told him 
that it wanted a great deal of correction ; and on his asking 
the reason, I pointed to some passages in the few chapters 
which he had left with me some time before by way of 
specimen. He replied that he had been more careful in the 
rest, and again asked what I would do ? I said that I did 
not wish to hinder the printing of his book, and was even 
willing to fulfil the promise I had given to John Gerard 
(a bookseller at Geneva) to look into it, and alter what 
wanted correction. This proposal he declined; but he 
offered to come and read his manuscript to me, if I would 
appoint an hour. I refused to bind myself down to any 
fixed time, even if he would give me a hundred crowns, and 
perhaps to be wrangling two whole hours over a single 
particle. Hereupon he departed, seemingly in a rather ill 
humour. To show you what a faithful interpreter he is, and 
how he makes new faults where he intends to correct, 
I will just give you a single instance. In the passage — 
" The Spirit of God which dwells in us — (Pesprit de Dieu qui 
habite en nous) — he renders, haunts us (hante nous :) though 
in French hanter does not mean to inhabit, but to frequent. 
This single puerile error is sufficient to condemn the whole 
book." * But to return to the narrative. 

In consequence of Calvin's denunciation to the council, 
Castellio demanded a public disputation with him on the 
subject of Christ's descent into hell. This, however, the 
council discreetly refused to permit; but allowed him to 

* MS. Goth., apud Schlosser, Leben JBezas, p. 55, note. 



CHAP. V.] 



SEBASTIAN CASTELLIO. 



171 



discuss the matter privately with Calvin, and the rest of the 
ministers. As might have been anticipated, this discussion 
had no other result than to embitter the feelings of the dis- 
putants. Castellio demanded his dismissal from the office of 
rector of the schools ; and, as it was expected, and as indeed 
he had given out, that he intended to retire from Geneva, 
Calvin, at his own request, furnished him with a handsome 
letter of recommendation, signed by himself in the name of 
the Genevese ministers.* In this he states that CastelhVs 
conduct had been such that, with the consent of all the clergy, 
he would have been admitted into the ministry, but for the 
circumstance of his not being able to agree with them on the 
points before mentioned. Then, after giving a short summary 
of the dispute, Calvin concludes his letter thus : — " Lest any 
one should suspect that Sebastian hath left us for any other 
cause than the preceding, we furnish him with this testimonial 
to be used wherever he may go. He vacated the rectorship 
of the schools of his own accord, and had so behaved himself 
in it, that we judged him worthy of the ministry. It was 
not an evil life, nor any impious dogmas respecting the 
capital articles of our faith, that prevented his being received 
into it, but the cause which we have explained alone." 
Besides this public testimonial, Calvin is said to have likewise 
furnished him with private letters of recommendation to 
some of his friends. 

Of these documents, however, Castellio does not appear to 
have availed himself, nor to have quitted Geneva till his 
behaviour two or three months afterwards drew down upon 
him a public expulsion; the occasion of which is described 
in a letter from Calvin to Farel, dated on the 30th of May, 
1544. t The preceding day appears to have been one of those 
dedicated to public discussions on some text of Scripture. 
There were about sixty persons present in the church, 



* This document, dated Feb. 17th, 1544, is printed by Dr. Henry, ii., Beil. 13. 
f MS. Gen., apud P.Henry, ii., Beil. 13. 



172 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



and the subject proposed was the text, " Showing our- 
selves the servants of the Lord, in long suffering," &c. 
On this theme Castellio kept up a continual antithesis, to 
the disparagement of the Genevese ministers, who, he 
endeavoured to show, formed at all points a complete 
contrast with the servants of Christ. "Paul," said he, 
"was the servant of God — but you serve yourselves; he 
was most patient — you most impatient ; he watched by 
night for the edification of the church — you spend the 
night in play ; he was sober — you are drunken ; he was 
vexed by seditions — you excite them; he was chaste — 
you are fornicators ; he was imprisoned — you imprison 
those who offend you by a single word ; he used the 
power of God — you a strange power ; he suffered from 
others — you persecute the innocent." During the delivery 
of this, as Calvin calls it, sanguinary harangue, the latter 
was silent, lest the dispute, he says, should become too 
violent before so many strangers. This silence may have 
been discreet; but it was contrary to Calvin's usual prac- 
tice : and as the charges which Castellio brought against 
the Genevese ministers were certainly grave ones, and 
openly made before a public assembly, they seem precisely 
of a description which required a public answer. Calvin, 
however, went privately to the syndics, and complained of 
CastelhVs conduct; who on the following day was sum- 
moned before the council, and, after a patient hearing, says 
Beza, condemned and banished.* Such was the summary 
process then used at Geneva for getting rid of those who 
made themselves obnoxious to Calvin and the ministers. 

Castellio retired to Basle, where there was more tolera- 
tion, and where he obtained the Greek professorship. At 
present, therefore, we shall dismiss him, as he will again 
claim our notice on the occasion of an attack made upon 
him by Calvin after the affair of Servetus. 



* Vita Oalv., anno 1544. 



chap, v.] HIS TRACT "DE REFORMANDi ECCLESIA." 173 



The year 1544 was an active one in Calvin's literary life. 
During the course of it he published no fewer than six 
tracts, some of them of considerable length. In that year 
the Emperor Charles V. held a diet at Spires. The threat- 
ening aspect of the political horizon at this juncture, the 
French king being leagued against him with Solyman, the 
Turkish emperor, obliged Charles to court the assistance of 
the Protestant princes of Germany, and for that purpose to 
make some important concessions with regard to religion. 
All the edicts issued against the Protestants were sus- 
pended, and the free and public exercise of their religion 
allowed, until either a general or national council should 
be assembled in Germany; an event which the emperor 
undertook to bring about as speedily as possible. Mean- 
while, Protestants were declared eligible as members of the 
imperial chamber.* At the request of Bucer, Calvin drew 
up a tract stating the views of the Reformers, to be pre- 
sented to the emperor and states at this diet. Bucer, 
however, expected but little from the turn of Charles's 
mind, devoured, as he was, in temporal affairs, by an in- 
satiable ambition, and sunk, with regard to spiritual ones, 
in the most degrading superstition. The instances which 
Bucer gives of the last show, that though Charles, as in the 
instance just recorded, may have sometimes sacrificed his 
religious to his political views, yet that he was at heart a 
bigoted Roman Catholic, with symptoms of that melancholy 
fanaticism which attended the close of his days. " He 
is completely addicted," says Bucer, "to puerile, or rather 
anile, superstitions. He offers up long prayers every day 
on his bended knees ; he tells his beads whilst prostrate 
on the earth, and with his eyes fixed on a portrait of the 
Virgin." t Charles's character, indeed, presents a curious 
mixture of bigotry and ambition. During his youth and 
manhood the latter got the better of the former; but in 

* Robertson, Charles V., b. vii. f Calvin, Epp. et Resp.,E\i. 52. 



174 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



his declining years the ruling passion asserted its empire, 
and showed itself strong in death. The full title of Calvin's 
tract is, "An humble Exhortation to the most invincible 
Emperor Charles V., and to the most illustrious Princes 
and other Orders now attending an imperial Diet at Spires, 
that they should seriously undertake a Reformation of the 
Church."* It first sets forth, in very severe terms, not only 
the abuses in the doctrine and discipline of the Ilomish 
Church, but the scandalous lives of its clergy. It then 
adverts to the amendments introduced by the Reformation, 
which, it is maintained, are the best that could be applied. 
Finally, the emperor is recommended to call a German 
council in preference to a general one, as the best means of 
restoring peace and concord to the empire : an argument 
which is supported by several examples of provincial synods. 

If the emperor ever read Calvin's book, it shared the same 
fate with his dedication to Francis I.; and, so far from producing 
any effect upon Charles's convictions, seems to have rendered 
him more bitter against the Protestants where he could be so 
without detriment to his political interests, that is to say, 
in his hereditary dominions. For Myconius, in a letter to 
Calvin dated from Basle on the 6th of March, 1545, in which 
he thanks him for a copy of the book, says : c< If the emperor 
has read it, the effect hath been contrary to what you 
intended, so hotly does he persecute the saints in Belgium."f 

The Pope, Paul III., finding himself obliged, in spite of 
his reluctance, to call a council, had at first endeavoured to 
procure its assembling in Italy. At the diet held at Spires, 
however, in 1542, he had authorised his nuncio to propose 
Trent; which town, though in the German dominions, was 
still sufficiently near the borders of Italy to render it con- 
venient for him to exercise a control over the proceedings 
of the assembly. Accordingly he ordered his legates to 

* Its Latin title is, " Be Necessitate Reformandce Ecclesice" <Ssc. 
f Calvin, Epp. et Resp, Ep. 61. 



chap, v.] HIS REMARKS ON THE POPE'S LETTER. 175 

proceed thither in November of that year, though the 
German Protestants had openly expressed their determination 
not to attend the meeting. After waiting a few months, as 
nobody appeared but a few prelates from the ecclesiastical 
states, the assembly began to appear ridiculous, and the Pope 
found himself compelled to prorogue it.* 

When Paul heard of the concessions which the emperor 
had made to the Protestants at the diet in 1544, he felt 
highly indignant, and wrote him a letter of remonstrance 
and exhortation, dated from Rome, on the 23rd of August of 
that year.f On this epistle Calvin published some remarks 
which he called Scholia, in which he replies to the letter 
paragraph by paragraph. He is very severe upon the Pope, 
who was one of the Farnese family ; and whom, with no very 
happy attempt at humour, he addresses throughout by the 
name of Frenesius. The following translations of some 
passages will serve to show the style of controversy usual in 
those days : " Behold a wonderful metamorphosis. The 
Pope is become so religious that he actually shudders at 
hearing of the peace granted to the Protestants. It is a 
little strange on the other hand, that he makes terms with 
strumpets, and doth not abhor the contamination of receiving 
the wages of their sin % that he settles with the J ews for an 
annual payment, not only that they may despise the Christian 
religion with impunity, but exercise open robbery through 
usury; nay, that he is not averse even to the Turks. But 
his sanctimony chiefly appears in his fearing, with the 
Apostle Paul, lest evil communications should corrupt good 
manners. What hast thou to do with these words of the 
holy Apostle, thou wicked apostate, and leader of all 
apostasy ? Thou who spendest thy days with thy most 

* Robertson, 1. c. 

+ It is printed among Calvin's tracts. The title runs, " Admonitio paterna 
Pauli III., Pontificis, ad invictum Csesarem, Carolum V. Qua eum castigat quod 
se Lutheranis prsebuerit nimis facilem ; deinde quod turn in cogenda synodo, 
turn in definiendis fidei controversiis, aliquid potestatis sibi surhpserit." 

W 



176 LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. [chap. v. 

wicked councillors in hatching treason, in planning frauds, 
in fanning the flames of war, in inventing new methods of 
rapine, in compassing the destruction of the innocent, in 
destroying the Church, and in dissipating religion; during 
the rest of thy time delighting thyself pleasantly with 
Epicureans, or wallowing like a swine amid thy herd of 
harlots, speaking and hearing nothing else but what breathes 
the most execrable impiety, or what may excite by its 
obscenity thy worn-out lust, which hath not yet ceased to 
itch." And, again : " Thou the successor of Peter ! who 
art no more like him than a Nero, a Domitian, or a Caligula ? 
Unless, perchance, thou preferrest Heliogabalus, who added 
a new priesthood to the empire. All these, indeed, were 
called pontiffs, or high priests, which was lawful according to 
the superstition of those times ; but thou usurpest that 
name amongst a Christian people against all law and right, 
against the inviolable decree of Christ, against the institutes 
of all the saintly fathers. Thou the vicar of Christ ! whose 
only thoughts, whose every desire and act, tend to procure 
the abolishment of Christianity, provided the empty name be 
retained, which thou abusest as a harlot doth her paint. Thou 
Christ's vicar ! whom even boys now know to be the very 
Antichrist ? What sort of Christ wilt thou fabricate for us, if 
thou wouldst have us acknowledge his image in thy tyranny ? 
We behold the high priest of all impiety, the standard- 
bearer of Satan, a ferocious tyrant of souls, a cruel execu- 
tioner, with regard to his way of life, a monster of all sorts 
of wickedness ; in a word, that Son of Perdition whom the 
Apostle portrays — and shall we hold him to be Christ's vicar ? 
We behold, I say, a wolf, by whom Christ's sheep are 
devoured ; a robber by whom they are driven off ; a marauder, 
by whom they are slain ; — and shall he be to us the vicar of 
Christ?" 

In the same year Calvin likewise published two other 
tracts in French; one of them directed against the Ana- 



chap, v.] TEACTS AGAINST THE ANABAPTISTS, ETC. 177 



baptists, and the other against the sect of Libertines. The 
chastisement inflicted on the Anabaptists at Munster had not 
extirpated that fanatical sect, though they were become com- 
paratively harmless. Calvin's tract against them, entitled, 
f e Briefve Instruction pour armer tout bon Fidele contre les 
Erreurs de la Secte commune des Anabaptistes" — was ad- 
dressed to the church of Neufchatel. In it he lays down and 
refutes seven articles of the creed of the Anabaptists. The 
sixth concerns the civil magistrate ; whose functions Calvin 
upholds by examples chiefly drawn from the Jewish 
government. 

As the Anabaptists were now pretty well subdued, Calvin 
handled them with mildness ; but with the Libertines, a 
spreading, pestilent, and dangerous sect, he was more severe. 
Pantheism was the distinguishing mark of their speculative 
tenets ; which however partook of all the heresies which had 
ever troubled the Church. By a metaphysical distinction 
respecting the nature of evil, which they held to be only a 
negation of good, they attempted to confound the boundaries 
of right and wrong, to convert immorality into a system, 
and to establish an unbridled licence. They rejected the 
Evangelists, disbelieved the existence of Satan and of all 
angels, and denied the resurrection. They characterised 
each of the Apostles by a ridiculous nick -name; calling 
St. Paul, pot-casse; St. Peter, renonceur de Dieu ; St. John, 
jouvenceau et follet ; St. Matthew, usurier, &c. 

Absurd and dangerous as were the tenets of this sect, they 
succeeded in spreading them in several countries of Europe. 
Strype, in his " Annals," * notices the existence of this sect in 
England at a later period, and gives the following descrip- 
tion of their doctrines. They held that there was no devil 
but such as painters made; that they who had the spirit 
of God knew all things ; that marriage was a sacrament and 
wonderful speculation ; that there were great mysteries and 

* Vol. ii., Pt. ii., p. 287, et seq. 

N 



178 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. v. 



great speculations in the mass, and that it was a God- 
service ; that Adam had no sin, but only Eve ; that a man 
ought not to weary his body in travail and labour, for that 
the Holy Ghost would not tarry in a body that was weary 
and irksome ; that the Bible was not the word of God, but a 
signification thereof ; for that it was but ink and paper, but 
that the word of God was spirit and life ; with other things 
of the like kind. 

Calvin's tract against these fanatics was also addressed to 
the church of Neufchatel, and is entitled, " Aux Ministres 
de VEglise de Neufchatel contre la Secte fanatique et furieuse 
des Libertins qui se nomment Spirituels." In it he represents 
them as the worst sect that ever existed, yet without ori- 
ginality in their doctrines. These were nothing but a com- 
bination of old heresies ; which however, from the excessive 
ignorance of the Libertines, they could not have learnt by 
reading: wherefore he concludes that Satan must have been 
their prompter. In the second chapter he compares them to 
the sect described in 2 Peter, ii. 12, and in Jude, ver. 10. They 
affected a tumid and unintelligible diction, and you would 
sometimes fancy that they were rapt in extasy above the 
clouds ; but it was a mere affectation. Their doctrine made 
them worse than the beasts ; for they ridiculed all idea of con- 
science and morality, and thought that every man should resign 
himself to the conduct of his own spirit. Bad as was the Pope, 
this sect was worse ; and people should spit in their faces as 
they passed by. They had a peculiar jargon, like the Bohe- 
mians or gypsies ; and though they used common words, they 
distorted them so that they could not be understood. The 
art of simulation was a principle with them; and they 
excused their double tongue, by alleging that Christ spoke 
in parables. They justified all kinds of sin and iniquity 
by 1 Cor. vii. 20. The crucifixion, they held, was but a play, 
or morality, designed to typify the mystery of our salvation. 

This sect had made considerable progress among the 



chap, v.] THE QUEEN OF NAYABKE OFFENDED. 



179 



higher classes in France • and Margaret of Navarre, though 
not perhaps herself infected with the tenets of these fanatics, 
protected at her court two men of note among them, 
Quintin and Pocques. These men Calvin attacked and 
ridiculed in his book* He says that he had known Pocques, 
whom he describes as a short little mass-priest (sacrificulus, 
staturd parvus), for three years; that he had been at Geneva, 
and wanted to get a certificate from him, but that he saw 
through the man, and refused it. This Pocques had written 
a book which Calvin characterises as Contes du coq a Pane, 
and gives some passages from it with remarks subjoined.* 

Margaret was highly displeased with Calvin's remarks 
upon her proteges, thinking them in some manner an attack 
upon herself; and the enemies of the Reformation laid hold 
of the opportunity to endeavour to make a breach between 
them.f She even caused letters to be written to Calvin in 
which she expressed her displeasure at his book. Calvin excused 
himself in a letter to Margaret dated on the 25th of April, 
1545, J in which he particularly insists that he had had no 
intention to bring royalty and government into contempt ; a 
charge of which he should be acquitted by all who knew 
him : nor would the respect he entertained for Margaret, 
on account of her services in spreading the Reformation, 
have permitted him to harbour such a design. So far from 
attacking her household, he says he had not even mentioned 
it; "yet I think," he continues, "that you do not esteem 
your house more precious than that of our Lord Jesus, of 
which one member is named Devil ; even a servant seated at the 
table of his master, and appointed to the honourable post of 
being one of the ambassadors of the Son of God." In this 
letter Calvin does not retract an iota of what he had said 
against Pocques and Quintin. It appears that Margaret 

* See the tract, ch. 4 & 23. f P. Henry, ii. 407. 

X Printed from the original French, Gen. MS. in P. Henry, ii., Beil. 14. It 
forms Ep. 62 in the Lausanne edition. 

N 2 



180 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. v. 



had even gone so far as to say that she would not have 
Calvin for a servant of hers. His answer to this is at once 
moderate and dignified. " As for your saying," he writes, 
" that you would not have such a servant as I, I confess that 
I am not fit to render you any great service. I have not 
the faculty, neither have you need of it. Nevertheless, the 
affection is not wanting; and, by the help of God, so long 
as I live I will always persist in saying so. And though you 
should disdain me for a servant, that will not prevent my 
being such in heart and will. For the rest, they who know 
me are well aware that I have never studied to enter into the 
courts of princes ; for I was never tempted by preferment and 
honours. Had I done so it might possibly have been in vain; 
but I thank the Lord that I was never tempted to it. For I 
have sufficient reason to content myself with the service of 
that good master who has accepted and retained me in his 
house, and appointed me to the honourable office which I hold, 
however contemptible in the eyes of the world. I should, 
indeed, be too ungrateful if I did not prefer this condition to 
all the riches and honours of the world." Calvin then 
defends himself, in the same strain of dignified humility, 
against a calumnious charge which had been made against him 
of inconstancy in maintaining his principles. 

On the 25th of November in this year (1544) we find Calvin 
writing to Bullinger, and discharging the balance of a small 
debt which he owed him.* In the same letter he alludes to 
the persecutions which he feared were preparing for the 
Waldenses in Provence, who had published a confession of 
their faith about three years previously at Aix. He exhorts 
Bullinger to be ready to assist those who might take refuge 
at Zurich, and to employ for them his mediation with the 
French king. Towards the close of the letter he tenders 
his advice to Bullinger respecting the course he should pursue 
with regard to an attack recently made by Luther on the 

* Something more than a crown. See Ep. 57. 



chap. v.J LUTHEK AISTD THE SWISS CHURCH. 



181 



doctrine of the Swiss churches respecting the eucharist. 
For some some years this controversy had been buried in 
silence; and though Luther, in a form of prayer for 
deliverance from the aggression of the Turks, published in 
1542, had enumerated among the causes of God's anger," the 
pestilential sects and abominable heresies of Muntzer, the 
Zwinglians, the Anabaptists, and several others which had 
arisen in the august name and under pretence of the gospel," 
it had been thought prudent to take no public notice of the 
insult.* Luther had been highly offended by Zwinglr's work, 
" Christiana Fidei Eocpositio ad Christianum Regem" published 
by Bullingerin 1536 ; which appeared to him so contradictory 
to all Zwinglr's professions at the conference of Marburg, 
that he was persuaded he had acted falsely by him. Luther 
had also heard rumours that he was but little respected at 
Zurich ; and Melancthon's evident inclination towards the 
Swiss churches had helped to wound him.f All these 
dormant causes of anger were, in 1543, kindled into a sudden 
flame by his receiving, from Froschover, the printer, copies of 
some books issued from his press at Zurich, amongst which was 
a new Latin version of the Bible by Leo Juda. Luther wrote 
back to Froschover directing him never again to send him 
anything published by the Zurich ministers ; declaring that he 
would neither read nor receive their books ; that the churches 
of God could have no communication with men who were 
not only damned themselves, but drew others to perdition and 
the flames of hell ; and that as long as he lived he would 
oppose them by his prayers and writings. J It was in vain 
that Melancthon sought to appease him. In his "Annotations 
on Genesis" published in 1544, he inveighed against the 
Sacramentaries ; and in a confession of faith, which appeared 
in the course of the same year, he broke out into open 
violence, loading Zwingli and his followers of the Swiss 



* Ruchat, v. 230. f P. Henry, ii. 349. 

X M. Adamus, Vita Lutheri, p.' 151. 



282 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



confession with abuse, and calling them enemies of the 
sacrament, and children of perdition. 

Luther's violence was lamented by moderate men of all 
parties, as it cut off all hopes of union among the churches. 
Melancthon was particularly grieved at it. He wrote to 
Bullinger to announce the appearance of Luther's con- 
fession, in the following terms : " Perhaps before you get 
this letter you will have received a most atrocious publication 
of Luther's, in which he revives the war on the subject of the 
Lord's Supper. He has never before taken up the cause so 
violently. Cease, therefore, to hope for the peace of the 
churches."* Writing to Frecht, pastor of Ulm, on the same 
subject, he says : " If my tears were as plentiful as the waters 
of the Danube, they would not suffice to exhaust the grief 
which I feel at this renewal of the sacramental war." He 
even said to Pontanus that if Luther persisted in this conduct 
he would seek to establish himself elsewhere. f 

Many persons thought that the ministers of Zurich 
ought to reply to these invectives, but a few of more sedate 
judgment, amongst whom were Bucer and Calvin, held the 
contrary opinion. The latter, in his letter to Bullinger 
before referred to, says : " I hear that Luther has at length 
published an atrocious invective, not so much against you as 
against us all. In these circumstances I can scarcely venture 
to ask for your silence ; since it is unjust that the innocent 
should be thus attacked without having an opportunity to 
clear themselves : although it is at the same time difficult 
to decide whether that would be expedient. But I hope you 
will remember in the first place how great a man Luther is, 
and in how many excellent endowments he excels ; with what 
fortitude and constancy, with what dexterity and efficacious 
learning, he hath hitherto applied himself both to over- 
throw the kingdom of Antichrist, and to propagate the 
doctrine of salvation. I have often said that though he 



* M. Adamus, Vita Bullingeri, p. 485. 



f Ruchat, v. 234. 



CHAP. V.] 



calvin's opinion of luthee. 



183 



should call me devil, I should always be ready to give him 
due honour, and to acknowledge him as a famous servant of 
God : although, as he abounds in excellent virtues, so 
likewise does he labour under great faults. I wish he would 
endeavour to restrain the violence with which he boils over 
on all occasions; and that he would always direct the 
vehemence which is natural to him against the enemies of 
truth, and not brandish it also against the servants of the 
Lord. I should be glad if he took more pains in searching 
into his own defects. Flatterers have done him much harm, 
especially as he is by nature too much inclined to self- 
indulgence ; but it is our duty, whilst we reprehend what 
is bad in him, to make due allowance for his excellent 
qualities. I beg of you and your colleagues, therefore, in 
the first place to consider that you have to deal with 
a distinguished servant of Christ, to whom we are all much 
indebted; and in the next, that all you will obtain by a 
conflict will be to afford sport to the ungodly, and a triumph 
over ourselves as well as over the gospel ; for if we indulge in 
mutual abuse, they will be but too ready to believe both sides." 

This letter discovers much good sense, and a due appre- 
ciation of Luther's merits. At the same time we must 
remember that Calvin had but little personal interest in 
this affair ; and in such cases nobody was better qualified by 
the excellence of his judgment to give good advice. But the 
resentment which he discovered when any point of his own 
more peculiar doctrine was attacked, or in disputes in which 
he was personally implicated, shows that he formed no excep- 
tion to the common remark, that it is much easier to give 
good advice to others than to follow it oneself. The abuse to 
which he descended in his controversy with the Lutheran 
Westphal, and which was admirably calculated " to afford 
sport to the ungodly/'' sufficiently confirms this observation. 
In such cases the natural heat and vindictiveness of his 
temper got the better of his understanding. 



184 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. v. 



Nevertheless, the Zurich divines thought proper to answer 
Luther; and published an Apology, or Defence, both in 
Latin and German, early in the ensuing year (1545), under 
the title of, " Orthodox Confession of the Ministers of the 
Church of Zurich, containing their Faith and Doctrine, com- 
mon to them with the Church Universal of the Saints ; 
particularly with respect to the Supper of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Together with a reasonable and modest Answer to 
the vain and scandalous Calumnies, Opinions, and Insults, of 
Dr. Martin Luther," &c. In this piece, though it avoided 
personal abuse, Luther was pretty severely handled. Although 
Calvin had opposed this course, he defended the Zurichers 
after the step had been taken; but he was not satisfied 
with their production, as we find from a letter of his to 
Melancthon, dated on the 28th of June, 1545.* In this 
he says : " If the matter be as those of Zurich say, they had 
just cause for writing ; but they should have written in a 
different style, or have held their tongues. For besides that 
the whole book is jejune and puerile, that lrTmany instances 
they defend their Zwingli rather pertinaciously than learn- 
edly, and sometimes with little modesty, and that they 
occasionally attack Luther undeservedly; so, also, in their 
treatment of the principal head they fail, in my judgment, 
in the very statement of their case. Yet you would not 
believe how pleased they are with themselves, as if they had 
acquitted themselves most admirably. Thus Zurich breaks 
down at the beginning. But as to your Pericles (Luther), 
how violently is he carried away in his thunderings ! 
although, as his cause is not a whit better, what does he 
gain by such clamour, except to make all the world believe 
him mad ? For my part, sincerely as I honour him, I am 
ashamed of his conduct. But the worst is, that not only does 

* This letter, which forms Ep. 63 of the Lausanne ed., has been published 
in a mutilated form by Beza, apparently to avoid giving offence at Zurich. The 
additional sentences are supplied from a MS. by Hess, Leben Bullingers, i. 455. 



CHAP. V.] 



luther's violence. 



no man dare to oppose and chastise his insolence, but even 
to mutter a word. I confess that we all owe him much; 
nor should I grudge him the chief authority, if he did but 
know how to govern himself : although in church affairs we 
should be constantly on the watch as to how far we defer 
to men. For all is lost when any single man has more 
power than all the rest ; especially if he be inclined to try 
how far that power reaches." 

Luther did not see this apology of the Zurich ministers ; 
but he was highly incensed at the account which he received 
of it from J acques Prevot, minister of the church of Bremen. 
In a letter to that clergyman, he said : " I am very glad to 
hear that the Swiss have written against me with such fury. 
It was the object of that tract by which they were all 
offended, that they should make known by some public 
record that they were my enemies. I have attained my 
end, and, as I said, I am glad of it. Were I the most 
wretched of men, it suffices me to have that sole beatitude of 
the Psalms — e Happy the man who hath not walked in the 
counsel of the Sacramentaries, who hath not trod in the 
path of the Zwinglians, and hath not stood in the pulpit of 
the Zurichers.' "* 

The violence displayed by Luther in these controversies 
does not appear to have abated Calvin's veneration for him. 
On the 20th of January, 1545, he addressed a letter to 
Luther — the only one he ever wrote to himf — which ex- 
presses that feeling in a high degree. The object of it was to 
obtain Luther's opinion respecting the conduct which should 
be observed by those Frenchmen who had adopted the 
reformed tenets, but were afraid to avow them openly. 
Two tracts of Calvin's on this subject, published in the 
previous year, had appeared somewhat harsh \ and the 



* " Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio Sacramentariorum, et in via Zwinglia- 
norum non stetit, et in cathedra Tigurinorum non stetit." — Buchat, v. 274. 
f It is printed by Dr. Henry, from a MS. at Zurich. Th. ii., Beil. 12. 



186 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



French Protestants were now desirous of learning the sen- 
timents of Luther and Melancthon on the same subject, in 
the hope that they might prove milder and more practicable 
than Calvin's. Calvin, however, was selected as the medium 
of communication ; and, it appears, that he was requested to 
make a journey into Saxony for the purpose of conferring 
personally with Luther on the subject. This he declined; 
but he made a Latin translation of the tracts alluded to, — for 
the convenience of Luther, who did not read French, — and 
forwarded them to him, together with the letter in question, 
by a trusty messenger. This letter he accompanied with 
another of the same date to Melancthon,* in which he requested 
that Reformer, as Luther's mind was still excited by his 
controversy with the Swiss, to read the letter which he had 
addressed to him, and to use it as his discretion might 
suggest. Calvin seems to have suspected that Melancthon 
might consider him too severe and precise in the line of 
conduct which he had prescribed to the French Protestants.f 

It appears from Melancthon' s reply J that he did not 
think it expedient to lay the matter before Luther, whom 
he represents as growing suspicious, and unwilling to have 
his opinions on such questions circulated; and mentions 
in modest terms that he had sent an answer of his own 
to the questions proposed. This, together with those of Bucer 
and Martyr on the same subject, was afterwards appended to 
the tracts in question, and published at Geneva in 1549. 

The tracts were the " Traite de fuir les Superstitions" and 
the "Excuse de Jehan Calvin a Messieurs les Nico demit es. ,} 
The former of these, as already mentioned, was an exhor- 
tation to a class of Frenchmen then sufficiently numerous, 
who, though converts to the Reformation, attended mass, 
and outwardly complied with the Roman Catholic rites. 

* Ep. 60, Lausanne ed. 
f " You would perhaps prefer that I should somewhat relax so precise a 
severity."— Ibid. J See P. Henry, ii., Beil. 12. 



chap, v.] CALVIN'S TRACTS AGAINST THE NICODEMITES. 187 



These Calvin advises to leave their country, and betake 
themselves to some place where they might enjoy their 
religious opinions in security. If they were prevented from 
so doing by any unavoidable circumstances, then he recom- 
mends them to absent themselves from the public churches ; 
to worship God at home, and to endeavour to make as many 
converts as possible to the true doctrine. This, he acknow- 
ledges, could not be done, without incurring the risk of 
death ; but at the same time represents that the glory of 
God is concerned, which ought to be much dearer to us 
than this transitory and unstable life, which is nothing but 
a shadow. 

The lofty precepts of self-devotion here inculcated appeared, 
as we might expect, too harsh and severe to the great mass 
of persons to whom they were addressed ; who excused their 
conduct by the example of Nicodemus, the Jewish Rabbi, 
who came secretly to Christ. Hence Calvin gave them the 
name of Nicodemites ; and again addressed them in a style 
still more severe in the second of the tracts before mentioned. 

In the beginning of this he compares them to scavengers, 
who by long use become so accustomed to bad odours, that 
they lose all sense of smell ; and their excuses he likens to the 
garlic, onions, and other strong food, with which such men seek 
to fortify their nostrils. He then describes the different kinds 
of Nicodemites. First, false preachers of the gospel, who, 
seeing that the world is tired of the mummeries of Popery, 
adopt some of the Reformed tenets, their only object being to 
fill their own pockets. This trait was probably directed against 
Gerard Le Roux (or Roussel) for whom Margaret of Navarre 
had procured the bishopric of Oleron.* " The second kind 
of Nicodemites are your luxurious prothonotaries who do not 

* " Get e'crivain (Sponde) reconnait que G. Roussel menait une vie irreproch- 
able, prechait souvent, nourissait des bataillons de pauvres, et instruisait des 
troupes de petits enfants ; mais il n'en etait que plus dangereux. II etait par- 
faitement Catholique a l'exterieur, semper se Catholicum exterius prqfitebatur ; il 
reniait hautement Luther et Calvin ; ce dernier composa mcmc un livre contre 



188 



LIFE OP JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



dislike to have a gospel, and to joke and tattle about it with, 
young ladies : only let it not prevent them from living as 
they wish. In the same rank may be placed your delicate 
courtiers and fine ladies, who have been accustomed to nothing 
but flattery, and never hear a rough word. I am not 
surprised that these should conspire against me, and with one 
accord condemn me of immoderate austerity. I long foresaw 
this, and fancy I hear them saying to one another : ' Away 
with this Calvin ! he is too unpolite. If we would hear him, 
he would not only reduce us to beggary, but lead us direct to 
the stake. Ought we to be compelled to such precision? If 
he wishes all to be like himself, and envies us our repose, 
what is that to us ? We are well enough here ; let him 
content himself with his own lot, and leave us in peace/ " * 

From these two sketches it appears that a tincture of 
evangelism was a fashion in the beau monde. The third class 
of Nicodemites is described as consisting of literary men, who 
look upon religion merely as a thing for the multitude; 
refrain from taking any active part, as supererogatory ; and 
laugh at those who are serious in the matter. Another class 
consists of merchants and plebeians, who do not care to be 
interrupted in their avocations by any such thoughts. In 
short, there was hardly an order of men that had not its 
Nicodemites. 

In one part Calvin rallies them with some wit, on their 
pleading the example of Nicodemus. — " Perhaps we may 
allow," says he, " that in one thing they resemble him ; — 
they bury Christ. The two interments, however, are very 
different. Nicodemus buried only his body, after anointing 

G. Roussel, sous ce titre/ Adversus Nicodemitas ; mais Sponde n'en est pas la 
dupe, et sa penetration decouvre facilement sous ce jeu concerte l'hypocrisie 
here'tique. 

u G. Reussel avait le tort de precker a la cour de Nerac en habit de laic ; on 
dit aussi qu'il donnait la communion sous les deux especes.'" — Genin, Lettres de 
Marguerite d'Angouleme, vol. i., p. 2G7, note. 

* Calvin, Opera, viii. 445, B., Anist. ed. ' 



chap, v.] calvin's tkacts against the nicodemites. 189 

it with precious aromatics ; they bury both his body and soul, 
both his divinity and humanity, and that too without honour. 
Nicodemus interred him when dead; but they thrust him into 
the earth after he hath arisen. Let them cease then to make 
Nicodemus their shield, and to persuade themselves that they 
may dissemble their faith even to the simulation of idolatry : 
for Nicodemus displayed a hundred times more fortitude in 
the death of Christ than all of them together after his 
resurrection." * 

Calvin's zeal in exhorting them, when himself at a safe 
distance, could not fail to strike the objects of his admonitions. 
" If he makes such strenuous professions," said they, " why 
does he not come hither, and show us how to behave ? He 
resembles the leaders of armies, who incite the common 
soldiers to the attack, whilst they themselves stand out of 
harm's reach/'' To this Calvin replies by putting himself on 
a par with the Apostles, who exhorted their followers to bear 
with constancy the loss of their fortunes, and even death 
itself. " Somebody," he exclaims, " may object that the 
Apostles did not escape persecution; and that they were 
thereby entitled to require others to suffer what they actually 
underwent themselves. I answer that the Apostles used 
frequently to exhort to patience and fortitude those churches 
which they had themselves deserted for fear of danger." f 
Such an answer savours more of spiritual pride than of 
the courage of a martyr. It should be stated, however, 
that Calvin is profuse enough of his assertions that he 
should be ready to sacrifice even life itself for the glory of 
God. 

As the letter which Calvin wrote in reply to the application 
which had been made to him to undertake a journey into 
Saxony, for the purpose of consulting Luther and Melancthon 
on this subject, affords some glimpses of his situation at this 
time, especially with regard to pecuniary matters, we shall 



Calvin, Opera, viii. 448, B., Amst. ed. 



+ Ibid., p. 448, A. 



190 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. v. 



insert some portion of it here. * In it he says : " I have hesi- 
tated for some time whether I should accede to the request 
contained in your last letter. The journey is a long and difficult 
one. A mounted courier cannot accomplish it under twenty 
days ; and it would be dangerous to send any person indiscri- 
minately. I cannot trust carriers or couriers, and few else are 
to be found. The journey would be an exceedingly difficult one 
for a person ignorant of the language ; and the expenses every- 
where exorbitant, on account of the bad harvest. I am, too, by 
no means well supplied with money. Evenin favourable seasons 
my income barely suffices to meet the charges I am at ; and 
from the scarcity with which we have had to struggle during 
the last two years, I have been compelled to get into debt. 
I do not say this, however, by way of complaint ; for, through 
the mercy of God, I have as much as contents me : but I 
would have you understand that I cannot easily find persons 
here from whom to borrow. They are all merchants, and 
moreover, needy ones. The season, too, as I have said, is 
unfavourable for consulting Luther, since he has hardly had 
time to cool from the heat of controversy. But as you pressed 
the matter so strongly, I made it my chief care to comply 
with your request, and have persuaded a young gentleman of 
tolerable learning to undertake this trouble for my sake. I 
have translated my books literally into Latin, and sent them 
with my letters, that they may form their opinion of them. 
All I ask of them is to tell me freely and candidly what they 
think; only I added that I should not be pleased if they 
suffered any considerations for myself to have any weight. 
My messenger will hardly return before two months are 
expired. The journey will take forty days; and I allow four 
days for baiting, and the rest of the time for consultation." 

* It is published in Beza's collection, without date, or name of the party 
addressed (Ep. 392, Lausaune ed.) 



CHAP. VI.] 



ANOTHER PESTILENCE. 



191 



/ 




It /(A/I 
i 



CHAPTER VI. 



Another pestilence — Conspiracy to spread the plague — Persecution of the 
Walclenses — The Libertines, or Patriots — Number and privileges of the 
Refugees — Case of Pierre Ameaux — Calvin's despotism — Priestcraft — ■ 
Struggles with the Libertines — Ami Perrin — Calvin menaced — Affair of 
Gruet — Perrin imprisoned — Disturbances — Perrin disgraced — Attempts 
at accommodation — Calvin embroiled with the Council — Perrin restored 
and elected syndic. 

In 1545 Geneva again experienced a severe visitation of 
the plague, whither it had been brought by some Swiss 
soldiers in the service of France, who were passing into 
Italy. * Its horrors were enhanced by a diabolical conspiracy, 
formed with the purpose of spreading the disorder by artificial 
means, in order to profit by the spoils of the dead. A 
suspicion of such conspiracies has frequently accompanied 
similar visitations. The minds of men, terrified and prostrated 
by the ravages of a disorder whose source is inscrutable, were 
disposed to assign them to some visible agent. Already, 
during the former visitation in 1543, plots of this kind had 
been suspected; and individuals had been subjected to 
torture in order to extort a confession, but without effect, f 
That such a conspiracy really existed on the present occasion 
cannot, however, be doubted; even some of the overseers 
and other persons connected with the Lazaretto were impli- 
cated in it. A man named Lentille, who had been servant 



f " J. Goulaz accuse d'avoir seme' la peste a endure sept estrapades et le 
tourment des Bujegnins sans rien avouer ; on le gardera encore en prison, 
puis l'onavisera." — Registres, 27 Avril, 1543. " L'on soupconne que de nuit il 
y a des empoisonneurs qui sement la peste par la ville. Ordonne d'en parler a 
M. Henri portier de la Tartasse." — Rtgistres, 8 Juin, 1543. P. Henry, ii. 414, 



* Spon, ii. 42. 



192 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



to a former master of the hospital, and who, according to 
Spon, only practised what he had learned from him, began 
to spread the plague by means of linen which had touched 
the bodies of those who had died of the disorder : for which 
purpose he had gained over the greater part of the women 
who cleaned and perfumed the furniture of the dead. The 
conspirators engaged in this plot bound themselves by 
horrible oaths to poison all whom the disorder spared in its 
natural course. Amongst the women who were privy to it, 
the disease went by the familiar name of " Clauda." Their 
usual greeting was, "How goes Clauda?" The answer was 
either, u She is quite asleep/' or if some fresh house had been 
attacked, " She goes finely ; she fares well in such and such 
a place." Without inquiring whether or not it was owing 
to the means adopted by the conspirators, it is certain that 
the ravages were frightful. Geneva was decimated: two 
thousand died out of a population of twenty thousand. 

The belief in a conspiracy was not confined to the mere 
populace, but was partaken by the higher classes, and even 
by Calvin himself. In a letter to Myconius, March 27th, 
1545,* Calvin says : " The Lord tries us wonderfully. A 
little while ago a conspiracy of men and women was dis- 
covered, who, for these last three years, have been spreading 
the pest in the city by I know not what incantations. 
Fifteen women have been burnt already ; and some men, after 
being fearfully tortured, have made away with themselves in 
prison. Twenty -five still remain prisoners; and yet the 
conspirators continue every day to smear the locks of the 
houses with their ointment. Such are the dangers which sur- 
round us ; but God hath as yet preserved our house unhurt, 
though it hath been several times attempted." And in 
another letter to Farel on the 25th of April, f he says : 
" What should I tell you about the poisonings ? You have 

* P. Henry, ii. 416, from a Geneva MS. 
*f* P. Henry, 1. c., from a Geneva MS. 



chap, vi.] CONSPIRACY TO SPEEAD THE PLAGUE. 193 



Weber with you, who can tell you the whole story more 
plainly than I can in a letter. The simplicity shown by 
Renat from the beginning has puzzled us a good deal. It is 
strange that he who was so steadfast under torture should 
have been overcome by a mere promise, on hearing that I 
had procured his pardon from the council. His wife con- 
fessed that she had killed eighteen men by her infernal arts, 
and he four or five." Altogether, seven men and twenty-one 
women were burnt alive for this offence. The husbands of 
three women were banished. Jean Lentille died of the 
consequences of his torture ; and the physician of the 
Lazaretto and two assistants were quartered. 

Nevertheless this singular crime continued to flourish at 
Geneva; which obtained such a reputation for it, that, in 
1565, the year after Calvin's death, a simple countryman 
came thither to purchase the far-famed ointment from the 
seigneurs, or council, themselves ! He wanted, he said, to 
be revenged on the people of the Duke of Nemours, who had 
stolen his daughter; and she had told him that she was 
sure the council would let him have the poison if he asked 
for it secretly. The poor old man being brought before 
the syndics added much more that plainly showed he was 
crazy. Nevertheless, Colladon, w T ho had been Calvin's 
assistant in his legal reforms, declared for the torture forte 
et ferme. The unlucky purchaser was indicted under three 
heads : poisoning, calumniating the Genevese council, and 
being in league with the devil ; and was burnt on the 
Molard in pursuance of his sentence.* 

Calvin's apprehensions that a persecution was hanging over 
the Waldenses were now on the point of being verified. Excited 
by the progress of Luther's Reformation, the Waldenses 
had taken heart, and begun to show themselves more openly ; 
and had even engaged some German doctors to be their 
ministers. In 1530 they had sent two of their pastors to 

* P. Henry, ii. 418. 



194 



LIFE OF JOHK CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



CEcolampadius at Basle, to Bucer and Capito at Strasburgh, 
and to Berthold Haller at Berne, to snbmit their doctrines 
to them for approval or correction.* It is curious to find 
these simple men, who held their faith by tradition, thus 
consulting those who had adopted nearly the same tenets 
by dint of study and learning. What most perplexed them 
was Luther's doctrine of predestination ; for they themselves 
held, like Erasmus, for free will. (Ecolampadius very sensibly 
advised them to leave this controversy alone. He also gave 
them a letter of recommendation to Bucer; from which, 
however, it would appear that he considered them rather 
tedious : for he advises him, if he did not wish to lose his 
time in a great many conversations, to cut the matter 
short by approving what he (CEcolampadius) had already 
written, f Their movements at length attracted the attention 
of the authorities, and they were cited to appear before the 
parliament of Aix ; but not answering on the third citation, 
Bartholomew Cassane, the president of the parliament, had, 
in November, 1540, passed the following atrocious sentence 
upon them: That the heads of families should be burnt, 
and their wives, children, and property confiscated ; that 
Merindol, their chief town, should be razed ; their gardens, 
woods, and plantations be destroyed, and the caves in which 
they took refuge be blocked up. It was thought advisable, 
however, to suspend the execution of this sentence till the 
king's wishes should be ascertained ; though many were for 
carrying it out immediately. The king commissioned 
Guillaume Bellay de Lange, governor of Piedmont, to 
inquire into the matter, who reported as follows : That the 
Waldenses were said to have received from their lords, about 
three centuries before, their then sterile and uncultivated 
territory, which by assiduous labour and cultivation they had 

* Their address to CEcolampadius, expla inin g their creed, discipline and rites, 
will he found in Gerdesius, ii. 402, and in an abridged form in Ruehat, ii. 320. 
*}< Gerdesius, ii. 418. 



chap, vi.] PERSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES. 



195 



rendered fruitful, and fit for cattle; that they did much 
work on a slender diet ; were charitable, and abhorred con- 
tention; that they paid their rent and taxes punctually; 
that they testified their religion by constant prayer and by 
the innocence of their lives, yet seldom entered a church 
except when business called them to the neighbouring cities ; 
that on such occasions they did not kneel before the statues 
of the saints, nor make them any offerings ; that they did 
not employ the priests to say mass for the souls of their 
relatives, nor cross themselves, nor sprinkle holy water when 
it thundered, but turning their eyes to heaven, implored the 
help of God ; that they did not uncover before the crucifixes 
in the streets; that in their religious service, which was 
performed in the vernacular tongue, they did not use the 
accustomed rites ; that they paid no honour to the Pope or 
bishops, but chose some of their own body for their doctors 
and preachers. 

In February, 1541, Francis sent a diploma to the parliament 
of Aix, granting a pardon to the Waldenses for the past, 
but requiring them to recant within three months, under pain 
of the customary punishment. Hereupon they demanded a 
disputation ; and Cassane obtained from them a confession 
of their faith, to be laid before the king. They also presented 
a copy of this confession to Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras ; 
who received those who brought it with his usual benevolence, 
but pointed out some passages in their creed which he thought 
might be amended.* 

So long as Cassane lived the sentence pronounced on the 
Waldenses by the parliament of Aix was not carried into 
execution, though they still adhered rigidly to their confession. 
After his death the bloody scenes which Calvin had antici- 
pated were hastened on by the machinations of private revenge. 
Among their other good qualities the Waldenses were remark- 
able for their industry ; and the Countess of Cental, a rich and 

* Gerdesius, iv. 130, where their confession will he found, Mon, 15. 

o 2 



196 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vr. 



handsome widow of Provence, had fonnd her revenues much 
increased by getting a considerable number of them to settle 
upon her estate. Jean Meynier, Baron d'Oppede, who, after 
the death of Cassane, united the office of chief president 
of the parliament of Aix with that of military governor of 
Provence, had been a suitor for the hand of the countess ; 
and the mortification of a repulse had goaded him on to 
form one of the most diabolical schemes of revenge that ever 
entered a human brain. He determined on depriving the 
countess of her labourers by a general massacre of these 
harmless religionists; and with a view to effect this object, he 
represented to the French court that the Waldenses had a 
plot to seize upon Lyons, and to form themselves into 
republican cantons after the model of the Swiss : though 
nothing could be further from the intentions of that people, 
who, of all religious sects, were the least disposed to political 
innovations. D^Oppede was seconded in his designs by 
Cardinal Tournon, a bigoted and blood-thirsty prelate, whom 
we shall again meet with in the course of this narrative ; and 
whose natural cruelty was moreover stimulated by pressing 
remonstrances from Rome against the impunity enjoyed by 
these heretics. D'Oppede also got his representations backed 
by several other fanatical magistrates. Francis, however, 
still remained undecided; and D'Oppede availed himself of 
this hesitation to use the means which his military command 
placed at his disposal. A levy of men raised in Provence 
against the enemies of France was employed against the 
helpless Waldenses. On the 28th of April, 1545, a horrible 
butchery took place. The towns of Merindol and Cabrieres, 
together with twenty-eight villages, were destroyed; the 
orchards and houses were burnt, the women outraged, the 
men massacred. In one church alone 800 persons are said to 
have been slaughtered ; and the total number of the slain 
was estimated at 4000. Madame de Cental demanded justice 
for the losses she had suffered. It is said that when Francis 



CHAP. VI.] 



PEKSECUTION OF THE WALDENSES. 



197 



heard of these proceedings he was highly offended, and seemed 
at first inclined to punish D'Oppede ; that when that noble- 
man went to court the king refused to see him ; and that he 
escaped only through the intercession of Cardinal Tournon, 
who represented to the king that any proceedings against 
him, or the parliament of Aix, would have the effect of giving 
fresh vigour to heresy. Some authorities, however, state 
that Francis approved of what had been done ; * and it is 
certain, at all events, that this horrible massacre went 
unpunished. It is said indeed that Francis, on his death-bed, 
recommended to his successor, to avenge this innocent blood ; 
and on the accession of Henry II., a suit was actually 
instituted against D'Oppede and his accomplices. It was, 
however, feebly prosecuted; and after five hearings, all the 
accused were acquitted, with the exception of Guerin, the 
avocat-general, and one of the principal actors in this horrible 
affair : though he was executed, not as an assassin, but as a 
forger, f 

Great numbers of the Waldenses sought safety in flight. 
Sadolet, much to his honour, received with kindness such as 
fled to Carpentras, and interceded for them with the king. 
Four thousand directed their steps towards Geneva, which 
offered the best place of refuge. Calvin exerted himself to 
find them lodging and employment, set on foot a sub- 
scription which yielded seventy florins, and got the council 
to employ them in repairing the fortifications. He saw 
that this blow would prove a great hindrance and dis- 
couragement to the Protestant cause in France, and therefore 
used every endeavour to get the Swiss cantons to intercede 
with Francis in favour of the remnants of the Waldenses. 
With this view he travelled to Zurich and Berne to consult 
the ministers of those cities ; and hearing that the cantons 
were to have a conference at Arau on the 21st of May, he 

* See Maimbourg, p. 90, who quotes Thuanus. 
f Lacratelle, Guerres de Religion, i. 28, et seq. 



198 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. ti. 



went thither, and addressed a pressing speech to the meeting. 
The cantons actually wrote to the King of France in the 
strongest terms, but without effect. He answered drily 
that he did not trouble himself concerning their government, 
and that they need not, therefore, inquire about his. It is 
said that Calvin had formed the design of going to Paris to 
solicit the king in person : but unluckily he fell ill just at 
the time when he should have set off; and Farel suddenly 
found himself too old to undertake such a journey. Both he 
and Calvin were French subjects, and a journey to Paris might 
have been attended with unpleasant consequences to them. 
This objection did not apply to Yiret, a native of Switzerland ; 
who accordingly visited the French court with letters of 
recommendation, not only from the Reformed cantons, but 
also from the states belonging to the Smalcaldic league.* His 
mission does not seem, however, to have produced any fruits. 

During the first four or five years which followed Calvin's 
return to Geneva, he experienced little opposition in con- 
solidating his power, and establishing his favourite scheme 
of ecclesiastical government j but about this time a party 
legan to be formed, which, for the next eight or nine years, 
occasioned him considerable trouble. This party assumed 
the name of Patriots ; but as a nick-name often serves to 
throw discredit on a cause, their adversaries gave them the 
appellation of Libertines, with a view to identify them with 
the fanatical sect of that denomination, whose tenets have 
already been described. Of the latter, some were doubtless 
to be found among the Patriots. As opposed to Calvin 
and his doctrines, they would naturally attach themselves 
to a party which sought his overthrow; whose ranks 
were also swelled by the dissolute and discontented with 
whom all cities abound, and who follow the leaders of 
popular movements in the hope of reaping advantage from 
the tumult and anarchy which usually accompany such 



Ruchat, v. 253. P. Henry, ii. 331. 



chap, vi.] 



THE LIBERTINES, OR PATRIOTS. 



199 



struggles. The basis of the party no doubt consisted of 
those who had formerly been the means of procuring Calvin's 
banishment ; but at the head of it were now many members 
of the old Genevese families : men not naturally indisposed 
towards him or the Beformation, but who beheld with regret 
and alarm their amusements interfered with, their power and 
privileges curtailed, the constitution of their country subverted, 
and the principal share in its government transferred to the 
hands of refugees and aliens. Their chief leader was Ami 
Perrin, upon whose moral character no serious imputation 
rests, though some members of his family were unfortunate 
enough to incur the censures of the consistory. Perrin 
himself had, as we have seen, not only been a zealous pro- 
moter of the Reformation at Geneva, but had taken an active 
part in procuring Calvin's recall. 

In their religious views, Perrin, and others of his stamp, 
had probably been much influenced by a love of civil 
liberty: for the Reformation had helped to free Geneva from 
the threatened yoke of Savoy, and from the traitorous 
designs of its own bishops. In recalling Calvin these men 
had been partly led by the desire of finding a counterpoise 
to the pretensions of Berne, whose influence at Geneva 
seemed to be growing to too great a height : but now they 
felt a more oppressive power springing up in the heart of the 
state itself, out of those very institutions which they had 
adopted for the sake of freedom. The great increase, too, 
continually taking place in the number of refugees, was calcu- 
lated to excite alarm and suspicion. A few details will show 
the extent to which immigration was carried on after Calvin's 
return. At the beginning of the century Geneva numbered 
12,000 souls ; * and up to the year 1543, that is in nearly 
half a century, the population had increased only to 13,000. 
But in 1550, Geneva contained 20,000 inhabitants; thus 
showing an increase of more than one-half in seven years, or 



* Picot, quoted by P. Henry, i. 144. 



200 



LIFE OF JOHN" CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



at the rate of about 1000 each year, the sum of the whole 
increase in the preceding forty-three years. At the last-named 
period, therefore, the refugees must have formed about one- 
third of the whole population: a very large proportion, 
especially when we consider that most of them were males ; 
that many of them were persons of some education and 
fortune, whose knowledge led, and whose means enabled, 
them to indulge their consciences by quitting their native 
country * and whose influence, therefore, must not be 
estimated solely from their numbers. The greater part of 
them were Frenchmen, though some few there were from 
Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. They were, too, especial 
favourites with Calvin and the consistory. He not only pro- 
cured as many as he could to be admitted to the rights of 
citizenship, in order that they might be useful to him in the 
more popular assemblies, but even contrived to get some of 
them elected into the ordinary council. The sacrifices they 
had made in leaving their country were magnified into a sort 
of confessorship ; and it appears from the Registers, that an 
insult to a refugee, was put on the same footing with one 
offered to a minister, and construed into a blasphemy 
towards God.* 

The favour and privileges which these refugees obtained 
were naturally regarded with a jealous eye by the native 
Genevese, who opposed their admission to the right of 
citizenship, and their being allowed to carry arms. The power, 
too, assumed by the consistory, and especially the right of 
excommunication, exercised, as it frequently was, in cases 
which might at least be regarded as venial, began to excite 
great discontent. It was becoming a kind of little Popedom, 

* One Louis B., in going out of church, had said to a refugee : u A v tous les 
diables soyent tant de predicans, et malgre Dieu tant de Francais, et qu'ils ne se 
trouvent en leur pais. Apres qu'ils ont mange leur Dieu, ils nous viennent ici 
controler." He also struck him in the face and drew blood. But on his trial 
no mention is made of the blows, but only of the words, which are said to be 
contre Vhonneur de Dieu (P. Henry, ii. 422, note). 



chap, vi.] NUMBER AND PRIVILEGES OF THE REFUGEES. 201 



the more intolerable as its pretensions were more minute 
and exacting, and more easily enforced. In his struggles 
with his opponents during this period, Calvin compares 
himself with David contending with the Philistines.* With 
such sentiments it was not likely that he should be content 
with small submissions. He sought to make the power of 
the consistory absolute in spiritual matters ; whilst the 
patriots demanded that moral and religious delinquents 
should not be cited before that body, but before the 
council. 

A remarkable instance of the manner in which Calvin 
maintained his personal authority occurred in the year 1546, 
in the case of Pierre Ameaux, a member of the council 
of Two Hundred. The wife of Ameaux belonged to the 
spiritual Libertines ; and such was the liberality of her princi- 
ples that, interpreting the doctrine of the communion of 
saints to mean that we should have all things in common, she 
not only included houses and lands in the precept, but even 
her own person, f Her husband, however, was so far from 
partaking in these sentiments, that he sought and obtained a 
divorce from his wife, who was condemned to perpetual 
imprisonment. But, though averse to the principles of the 
Libertines, Ameaux was no friend of Calvin's. After a supper 
given at his own house, at which a good many persons w r ere 
present, including Henri de la Mar and Aime Maigret, two 
of the ministers of Geneva, Ameaux, who had drunk rather 
freely, was imprudent enough to declare that Calvin preached 
a false doctrine, was a very bad man, and nothing but a 
Picard. It appears that he had been led to utter these 
words in consequence of a violent quarrel which had occurred, 
a little previously, between Calvin and Ami Perrin, which it 

* " For as not only the Philistines and other external enemies molested that 
righteous king with continual wars, but the malice and wickedness of perfidious 
enemies at home still more deeply wounded him ; so I, attacked on all sides, 
have scarcely had a moment free from contention either at home or abroad." — 
Preface to the Psalms. + P. Henry, ii. 412. 



202 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



had required the interference of the council to appease. Some 
of the company, after enjoying Ameaux' s good cheer, carried 
his words to the council, who caused him to be imprisoned 
and tried for them.* Whilst yet in prison, and before his 
sentence had been pronounced, Henri de la Mar, in a con- 
versation with one Benedict Tixier, related what had passed 
at the supper, the substance of which was given by Tixier in 
a deposition before the council on the 12th of March. Tixier 
had asked whether Ameaux had said any thing directly 
against God or man ; to which De la Mar replied : " I think 
he said something against Calvin ; nevertheless, if there be 
anything wrong and if he has committed himself, it was after 
drinking." Of Calvin himself De la Mar said : " I have 
always known him to be a good and virtuous man, and of 
great intellect. But he is somewhat governed by his 
passions ; impatient, full of hatred, and vindictive : and if he 
once takes a spite against a man, he never forgives." This 
conversation cost De la Mar his place ; who, together with 
Maigret, was deposed from the ministry, as having sided 
with Calvin's enemies. Before the council pronounced their 
sentence on Ameaux, they summoned before them all the 
ministers, with the exception of the two just named, and 
also the elders, and examined them as to Calvin's character, 
and the truth of Ameaux' s charges ; all of whom bore 
testimony to Calvin's piety and charity, and the perfect 
congruity of his doctrine with the word of God ; in which 
doctrine they professed that they wished to live and die, and 
to have no schism among them. Ameaux made an apology, 
in which he retracted his words, declaring that he had not all 
his senses about him at the time, and that henceforward he 
would treat Calvin with proper respect. The council, never- 

* " On met Pierre Ameaulx en prison pour avoir dit que M. Calvin prechoit 
une fausse doctrine, etoit un tres mechant homme, et n'etoit qu'un Picard." — 
jftegistres, 27 Jan., 1546. The last word is ambiguous, and may relate either to 
Calvin's birthplace, or to a term of reproach then in use. See Bayle, Picard. 



CHAP. VI. J 



CASE OF PIERRE AMEAUX. 



203 



theless, condemned him in a fine of sixty dollars • a tolerably 
v large sum in those days, and quite adequate, one would 
T think, to the offence, seeing that it had been committed in 
4 his own house, at an unguarded moment, — that Ameaux had 
^niply retracted it, and that he had suffered two months' 
* imprisonment on account of it. But Calvin, whose charity 
had just been vouched by the recorded testimony of his 
colleagues, was not satisfied. He appeared before the 
council, accompanied by the other ministers and elders, 
complained of the mildness of the judges, and demanded 
that the sentence should be quashed. Hereupon the trial 
was renewed. By a second sentence Ameaux was condemned 
to the degrading punishment called the amende honorable ; 
namely, to parade the town in his shirt, with bare head, and 
a lighted torch in his hand, and to finish by making on his 
knees a public acknowledgment of his contrition.* A striking 
instance of Calvin's power ! when we find him making the 
chief judicial and legislative body of the state thus stultify 
its decision at his pleasure. Besides being deposed from 
the ministry, Henri de la Mar was also imprisoned for some 
days for the part he had taken in this affair. 

The severity of Ameaux's sentence caused considerable 
excitement at Geneva, especially in the quarter of St. Gervais, 
where symptoms of riot and insubordination appeared. On 
the 30th of March the whole council proceeded to that 
quarter, attended by the police under arms, and caused a 
gibbet to be erected, by way of terror to the populace. The 
sale of wine was also forbidden. These steps had the desired 
effect ; and on the 5th of April Ameaux' s sentence was 
quietly carried into execution. 

Calvin had thus gained a sort of victory, which served to 
strengthen his hands ; and the proceedings of the consistory 
for the maintenance of discipline went on more vigorously 
than ever. Numbers of persons were cited before that body 

* P. Henry, ii. 426. 



204 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



and their morals inquired into. The representation of a play, 
or morality, called the " History of the Apostles/' was 
forbidden, at the instance of the ministers, after it had been 
acted several times with great applause, and had even been 
attended by the council. The minister, Michael Cop, who 
had made himself conspicuous on this occasion, was cited 
before the council, for having said, in a sermon at St. Peter's, 
that the women who should appear in this play were shameless 
and without honour, and that their only design was to excite 
impure desires by appearing dressed up in it. * Calvin has 
described this affair in a letter to Farel, f from which it appears 
that, though he took Cop's part, even he was of opinion that 
that minister had carried his zeal too far. The affair was near 
leading to a serious riot, but was settled by the interference 
of Calvin, and Abel, one of his colleagues. The reforms now 
sought to be introduced were petty and vexatious. Amongst 
other things, people were forbidden to give their children 
the names of Eoman Catholic saints, and instances occur 
of imprisonment for refusing to comply with this regulation. 
On the 27th of April, 1546, we find one Chapuis imprisoned 
for four days for persisting to name his son Claude instead of 
Abraham, as the minister wished; and for saying that he 
would sooner keep his son fifteen years unbaptised. At the 
end of the same entry in the Registers we find it stated 
that Calvin had called the people of St. Grervais " beasts," and 
threatened to hang some of them. J Such was the pitch of 
despotism at which he had arrived. He seems to have 
thoroughly despised the council of this year, which indeed 
he might well do after their conduct in the case of Ameaux. 

* JRegistres, 28 Juin, 1546. Gre'nus, Fragm. Biogr. + Ep. 68. 

+ " Chapuis mis en prison, 27 Avril, pour avoir persiste a nommer son fils 

Claude, quoique le ministre n'ait pas voulu, mais Abraham il avait dit qu'il 

garderoit son fils plutot quinze ans sans bapteme. On le garda quatre jours en 
prison. C'etoit le jour de la reconfirmation de la bourgeoisie que Calvin dit que 
les gens de St. Gervais etoient des betes et qu'il en pendroit."— Eegistres, 1546. 
P. Henry, ii. 429. 



CHAP. TI.] 



calyin's despotism. 



205 



In the letter to Farel, before referred to, lie describes them 
as entirely at bis devotion, bnt at the same time censures the 
timidity which constantly characterised them.* It was in 
the autumn of this year that he endeavoured to subjugate 
their minds by a method which, in one so remarkably free 
from superstition as Calvin, has all the appearance of priest- 
craft. The affair alluded to — the pretended carrying off of 
a man by the devil — is noted in the Registers under the 
date of the 15th of October, 1546, and is described by Calvin 
himself in a letter to Viret dated on the 14th of November, f 
A labourer, who lived at a little distance from Geneva, after 
losing his wife and four children by the plague, had himself 
been seized with the same disorder. Calvin describes him as 
a man of an evil and profligate life ; a drunkard and frequenter 
of taverns, a brawler and blasphemer, and an open contemner 
of God. When his neighbours called him to account for 
going so seldom to the church, I have heard, says Calvin, 
that he was accustomed to say : " What ! have I hired myself 
to Calvin to go and hear him preach ? " When the disorder 
had reduced him to such weakness that he could scarce lift 
up his hand, he was suddenly seized with a frenzy in the 
night, and endeavoured to leap out of bed, but was restrained 
by his mother and the servant. Meanwhile, his discourse ran 
wholly on the devil, and on his being a desperate sinner and 
reprobate, and the destined prey of Satan ; and when exhorted 
to pray to God, he said it was of no use, that he was given 
over to the devil, and that God was no more to him than the 
vilest part of an old shoe. About sjeven in the morning, as 
his mother was sitting at the door of the cottage, he suddenly 
flew over her head, as if he had been carried away ; and in 
spite of the efforts both of herself and the servant to hold him, 
was borne to a distance with wonderful swiftness and force. 

* See Ep. 68. 

f Printed by Dr. Henry, i., Beil. 12. " Enlevement pretendu d'un laboureur 
par le diable." — Begistres, 15 Oct. Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 



206 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAF. VI. 



In his course lay a broad road, with a hedge and ditch on both 
sides, neither of which he could have jumped over without 
breaking his limbs; yet, over these obstacles, the women 
asserted that they beheld him carried like a whirlwind, into a 
vineyard on the other side of the road. They pointed out the 
very spot where he had vanished from their sight ; and where 
his cap had been found on the banks of the Rhone ; but some 
boatmen were employed in vain to search the river for his body. 

Such was the story, which admits of no difficult solution. 
The man, in his frenzy, had rushed out of doors, and flung 
himself into the Rhone : the supernatural incidents alleged 
to have accompanied the act were merely the exaggerations 
suggested by the terrified imaginations of the old women. 
Such, in fact, was the interpretation put upon the story by the 
sober part of the population of Geneva, who were only inclined 
to laugh at it : at which levity, however, Calvin was highly 
offended. His own name had been mixed up in the affair : 
and, among other sins, the victim of Satan had neglected 
to attend his sermons, and had even indulged himself in a 
sneer at them : a point on which Calvin was particularly sensi- 
tive. After a discussion among the ministers, it was resolved 
that the matter deserved inquiry, and Calvin was deputed to 
bring it under the notice of the council. He accordingly 
addressed that body in a long speech, in which he insisted on 
the necessity of discovering the truth, in order that, if the 
story was a fable, it might be refuted by public authority ; but 
that if it was true, so signal a judgment of God might not be 
buried in oblivion. He remarked that he saw many who tried 
to dismiss the affair with a joke; but he admonished them 
that there never was so plain a miracle which Satan did not 
endeavour to obscure. In consequence of these represen- 
tations, the four syndics, the greater part of the council, the 
lieutenant of police and his court, together with Calvin 
himself, repaired to the spot, and examined the women. 
" Though the matter was so plain," says Calvin, "yet some 



CHAP. VI.] 



PRIESTCRAFT. 



207 



of our chief men were guilty of the most impudent tergiver- 
sation. Hereupon I exclaimed with a loud voice, 'If you 
believe there are any devils, you here clearly behold the 
devil's power. They who have not faith in God deserve to 
be blind in open day.*' " On the next Sunday Calvin, by 
the advice of his brethren, inveighed severely in his sermon 
against those who treated, or pretended to treat, a well- 
authenticated fact as a fable. He even went so far as to 
testify that he had demanded death with the most ardent 
vows more than twenty times during those two days, when 
he beheld them surveying the judgment of God with such 
brazen fronts ! " For," he adds, " the impiety of our people 
was never so openly detected. A few. only verbally assented, 
but I know not if a single one believed in his heart. I added 
two other instances which had recently occurred, though not 
equally remarkable. A man who had gone into a wine 
cellar on a Sunday, during the sermon, to indulge in his 
potations, happened to fall on his sword, which had slipped 
out of its scabbard, and was carried out dying. Another 
who, in the preceding September, on communion- day, had 
endeavoured to climb up to the window of his mistress, had 
a terrible fall, and broke several of his bones. At length I 
concluded: till hell absorbs you, with your whole families, 
you will not believe when God stretches forth his hand ! " 
Such was the use which Calvin sometimes made of the 
casualties of the day, to enforce his spiritual authority. 

We have already adverted to a quarrel which had taken 
place between Calvin and Ami Perrin, who at this time enjoyed 
the post of captain-general, or commander of the Genevese 
troops ; and some occurrences which followed in the course 
of this year served to embroil them more and more. Perrin 
had married the daughter of Fabri, who belonged to one of 
the leading families of Geneva, and one of the most ardent 
in the Patriotic cause. The consequences of a wedding 

* Calvin to Viret (P. Henry, i., Beil., p. 67). 



208 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



which occurred in this family led to some severe exercises of 
the consistorial power. It must be confessed, however, that 
the occasion on which they were exerted shows that the 
morals and manners of many even of the higher classes 
of the Genevese were in a very corrupt and deplorable 
state, and required great amendment; though it may be 
doubted whether the violent means adopted by Calvin were 
the best suited to that purpose. The great want seems 
to have been that of education, without which it is in vain 
to expect decency of manners. We shall leave Calvin to 
describe these occurrences in his own words, in a letter 
to Viret, dated on the 11th of August, 1546;* only it 
is necessary, to the understanding of some parts of it, to 
premise that Calvin, at this time, was accustomed to designate 
the leading personages among his opponents by some nick- 
name. Thus, the Penthesilea mentioned in it was the wife 
of Perrin ; Proserpine seems to have been either his mother 
or mother-in-law. Perrin himself he sometimes calls the 
tragic j and sometimes the comic, Ccesar ; apparently with a 
view to ridicule his political pretensions. 

" A bastard, named D'Orbe, of the house of Fabri, lately," 
says Calvin, " married another bastard of a certain Nantois, 
and about thirty persons went out to meet the bride. This 
was an absurd piece of pomp ; for the husband, as you know, 
is a man of no mark or station ; and yet a very unreasonable 
clatter was raised in the town on his behalf. They left home 
when the first sermon was delivering, and returned during 
the second. What was the consequence? The Lord hath 
humbled all that pomp, f Brother Abel performed the 
marriage ceremony. At the time when he was to pledge 
the conjugal faith, the rascally husband was thinking of 
other things ; and when told at least to bow assent, he 
shook his head. There was a murmur of indignation among 

* Ep. 69. 

f The force of the original is untranslateable. "Dominus stercore aspersit 
totam illam pompam." 



chap, vi.] STBUGGLES WITH THE LIBEETINES. 



209 



the people. Nevertheless Abel proceeded, though he ought 
to have broken off the ceremony ; but he asserts that he did 
not remark the act. But what Abel treated so lightly 
has been severely punished by the council ; and that super- 
cilious gentleman, after eight days of close confinement, has 
to-day acknowledged his guilt in the face of the church. 
His wife's uncle is still in prison. The jailor has strict 
orders to give him nothing but bread and water; nor will 
he be released without some mark of public ignominy. For 
when he was reproved by brother Raymond for openly deny- 
ing God, he repeated his execrable blasphemy, and told him 
he was sorry he had not pulled his beard, knocked him down, 
and kicked him. Proserpine also, the day before they 
received the spouse with such honours, beat the mother-in- 
law in such a manner that she bled profusely; her whole 
countenance was disfigured with wounds, and her head covered 
with dirt. You know the old woman's temper : she was 
heard through the whole street, calling on God and man to 
assist her. We cited her before the consistory, but she had 
escaped to her sister's : however, we shall cite her again on 
the first opportunity. What could I do? Was I to incur 
the condemnation of the whole church by seeking, through 
my silence, to conciliate a single individual? I will take 
care, however, to give him no just cause of offence. Penthe- 
silea will certainly have to be reprimanded shortly. She 
patronises the worst causes, and conducts their defence with 
fury; in short, her every word and deed betray her utter 
want of modesty." 

The individual, whom Calvin appears, from the latter part 
of this letter, to have been desirous of conciliating, must have 
been Perrin. But another infringement of the discipline 
brought not only Perrin and his wife, but the whole family of 
Fabri, before the consistory. Their crime, on this occasion, 
was dancing at a wedding celebrated at the house of the 
widow Balthazar at Bellerive. Among the company was 

p 



210 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



Corne, one of the syndics, as well as Perrin. We will again 
make Calvin the narrator of these circumstances, which we 
find detailed in a letter to Farel. * 

" Since you left us, we have had more trouble about dancing 
than I thought we should have. All who were present at 
this fete, with the exception of Come and Perrin, being 
cited to appear before the consistory, lied most impudently in 
the face of God and ourselves. I naturally grew angry at 
this baseness, and inveighed vehemently against their con- 
tempt of God, in turning into ridicule the sacred adjurations 
I had employed. Being well acquainted with the whole 
affair, I called God to witness that such gross perjury should 
not go unpunished ; and at the same time declared that if it 
cost me my life, the truth should be discovered, and that 
therefore they need not think to gain anything by their 
falsehoods. Even Frances Perrin abused me roundly for 
being so inimical to the Fabris. I answered her as she 
deserved, and asked if the family enjoyed the privilege of 
inviolability and exemption from the laws ? I pointed out 
that the father had been already convicted of one adultery ; 
that the proof of another was at hand ; and that there was a 
strong rumour of a third. I stated that her brother had 
openly contemned and derided both the council and myself. 
Finally I added, that if they were not content to submit to 
us here under the yoke of Christ, they must build another 
city for themselves : for that so long as they remained at 
Geneva, they would strive in vain to elude the laws ; and 
that if each furious head in the house of Fabri wore a diadem, 
it should not prevent the Lord from being superior. Mean- 
while her husband (Ami Perrin), had betaken himself to 
Lyons, in hopes that the matter would be passed over in 
silence. On my proposing that they should be sworn to 
confess the truth, Corne admonished them that he would not 
suffer them to forswear themselves. They then made the 



Ep. 71. 



CHAP. VI.] 



AMI PEREIN. 



211 



desired confession, and moreover, that they had danced that 
day at the widow Balthazar's ; whereupon they were all thrown 
into prison. The syndic (Corne) showed a remarkable example 
of moderation; and spontaneously denounced himself, and 
the whole of the company, too strongly to render it necessary 
to have many words with him. Yet he was severely repri- 
manded by the consistory, and degraded from his office till 
he should show some satisfactory proofs of repentance. They 
now say that Perrin is returned from Lyons." 

Perrin had indeed returned, and seems to have been 
desirous of entering into some arrangement or compromise 
with Calvin respecting this affair ; as appears from a letter 
addressed to him by Calvin, which, though rather out of its 
order in his published correspondence, seems referable to 
this period. * In this Calvin says : — 

" Monsieur le Capitaine, 

" I would willingly have met you, but that I thought 
it not expedient; the reason I will explain to you at the 
proper time and place. I wish you had appeared before the 
consistory, in order to set an example to others. As the 
citation may seem imperfect because you had not been 
previously admonished, I wish at heart you had been present 
at the last sermon to-day, that the syndic Corne and myself 
might have treated with you. I do not see what hindered 
it ; but I wish you to consider that we cannot use different 
weights and an uneven balance ; and that if equality is to be 
observed in law, inequality cannot be tolerated in the Church 
of God. You know what sort of man I am, or at least ought to 
know ; one to whom the word of my Heavenly Master is so 
dear, that regard for no human being shall prevent me from 
conscientiously asserting it. I do not myself know that you 
have other views; but I perceive that every one is rather 
blind in his own cause. For my part, I not only desire that 
the edification of the church and your own salvation should 

* Ep. 88 (no date). 

r 2 



212 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYHST. 



[chap. VI. 



be consulted in this business, but even your convenience, 
your reputation, and your ease. For you would incur a 
great deal of odium if you were released from that common 
law by which all are bound ; and from the love I bear you, 
1 t would be better for you to anticipate the danger, than that 
such a brand should be inflicted on you. I have heard, 
indeed, the rumour proceeding from your house; that I should 
take care how I blew the dormant fire, lest the matter should 
end with me as it did seven years ago. But such words 
make no impression on me : I did not return to Geneva with 
the view of obtaining leisure or profit, nor will it be to my 
sorrow should I have again to leave it. It was the welfare 
and safety of the church and of the city that induced me to 
return ; and if I alone were now in question, I would say 
once for all to those whom I importune by my presence, 
'What you do, do quickly/ But the un worthiness and 
ingratitude of certain persons shall not make me wanting to 
my duty ; nor will I lay aside till my last breath that love 
towards this place which I have from God," &c. 

In spite of his office, however, Perrin was thrown into 
prison, though it does not appear how long he remained 
there. During the following year the quarrel grew still 
warmer. Perrin and his relations, who formed part of 
the council, declaimed loudly against the consistory ; com- 
paring its functions with the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of 
the Church of Borne, and maintaining that the depriving of 
the magistrates of a portion of their power, and giving it to 
the consistory, was nothing more nor less than a relapse into 
Popery. These representations had such an effect upon the 
council that, in the month of March, 1547, a majority voted 
that their body should exercise a control over church disci- 
pline ; but Calvin, supported by the other ministers, made so 
vigorous a remonstrance that it was determined eventually to 
abide by the established regulations. * Calvin's inflexibility 



* Ruehat, v. 317. 



CHAP. VI.] 



CALVIN MENACED. 



213 



irritated the Libertines more and more, and some further 
collisions with Perrin's family added fuel to the flame. His 
father-in-law, cited before the consistory to answer for an 
adultery, refused to appear ; and his wife, called before the 
same body for having danced, maintained that it had no 
right to take cognizance of such things, and complained of 
the bitter affront offered to her in dragging her before a 
tribunal whose jurisdiction should extend only to rogues 
and criminals. On Abel Poupin remonstrating with her, 
she overwhelmed him with abuse, and became so violent 
that it was necessary to put her out of the room. The 
council ordered her to be thrown into still closer confine- 
ment ; whence, however, she managed to escape throngh the 
assistance of another lady, whom Calvin describes as the 
patroness of all bad causes. Accompanied by one of her 
sons, she fled from Geneva; and meeting Abel Poupin by 
chance near one of the gates, renewed her attack upon him 
more violently than before.* 

This happened on the 26th of June j and on the following 
day a libel, couched in the most violent language, was found 
attached to Calvin's pulpit in St. Peter's church. It was 
written in the patois then current, and its tenor was as 
follows : " You and your companions will gain little by your 
pains. If you do not leave the city nobody shall prevent 
your overthrow, and you will curse the hour that you left 
your monkery. Warning has been already given that the 
devil and his renegade priests were come hither to ruin 
every thing. But after people have suffered long they 
avenge themselves. Take care that you are not served 
like M. Wernly, of Friburgh. We will not have so many 
masters. Mark my words well ! "t 

The council were alarmed at this audacious threat, and 

* Calvin, Ep. 77. 

f The original document, from Galiffe, will be found in P.Henry, ii. 441, 
Compare Spon, ii. 47. Ruchat, v. 318. 



214 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vi. 



ordered steps to be taken for the discovery of its author. 
Suspicion fell on one Jaques Gruet, who was known to be 
one of the leading members of the Libertine faction, and 
who had been heard to utter some threats against Calvin 
only a few days previously. He was immediately arrested ; 
and though the libel did not appear to be in his hand- 
writing, yet on searching his house other papers were 
found, which tended to implicate him. Among them was 
a memorial, or petition, for the abolition of the ecclesias- 
tical discipline, intended to be presented to the general 
assembly; in which it was maintained that nothing should 
be vindicated by the laws but what was hurtful to civil 
government : a proposition which was supported by an 
appeal to the practice of the Venetians, a people very 
skilful in political science. It also stated, that while Geneva 
suffered itself to be ruled by the brain of one melancholy 
man, there was danger lest a sedition should arise, in which 
a thousand citizens might fall. Several letters were also 
found addressed to Andre Philippe, Pierre de Bourg, and 
other persons, which were filled with abuse of Calvin, and 
in which he was described as haughty, ambitious, and 
obstinate ; as a great hypocrite, who wished to make himself 
adored, and to rob the Pope of his dignity ; and as of such 
audacity that he had said he would make kings and 
emperors tremble. He was also represented as a man who 
pretended to divine inspiration ; and he was advised to 
renounce Christianity, and to make himself the head of a 
new religion. Lastly, there were found two pages written in 
Latin, in. which the Scriptures were ridiculed, and Christ 
blasphemed ; the immortality of the soul was called a dream 
and a fable; and, in short, the very foundations of religion 
were attacked and undermined.* This last paper Calvin did 
not take to be the composition of Gruet, but being in his hand- 
writing it formed one of the articles of indictment against 



* Calvin, Ep. 77. Spon, ii. 45, note s. 



CHAP. VI. | 



AFFAIR OF GEUET. 



215 



him. A copy of Calvin's work against the Libertines was 
also found in his possession, against a passage of which he 
had written in the margin, (C toutes folies."* 

The suspicion which fell so readily on Gruet had not been, 
as we have observed, without some antecedents to direct it. 
The Patriots had now taken a leaning towards the Bernese, 
who were opposed to the council of Geneva, and to Calvin ; 
and Gruet and others had adopted a style of dress then 
prevalent at Berne, as a symbol of their political principles. 
This emblem of sedition, against which the consistory 
repeatedly hurled its thunders, was nothing more nor less 
than a pair of breeches open at the knee [caligae dissectce) ; 
and from a letter of Calvin's to Viret, written about a month 
before the affair of Gruet, f we find that the subject had 
been deemed important enough to be brought before the 
council of Two Hundred. On this occasion Calvin made a 
speech, in which he declared that he did not care for the 
trifles in question, except as they were the badge of 
corruption and sedition ; and represents himself as address- 
ing the assembly with such effect as at once deprived his 
opponents of all their hopes. Besides these attacks in the 
senate, the ministers also denounced the leaders of the 
popular party from the pulpit, and even abused them by name. 
Thus AbelPoupin called Fabri "dog;" and Calvin, in one of 
his sermons, saluted Gruet with the same title, adding other 
hard words, such as goinfre, and balaufre. % 

After his apprehension Gruet was tortured morning and 
evening for a month ; but he would not name any accomplices, 
though he must undoubtedly have had several. He con- 
fessed that he had affixed the libel, and that the papers 
found were his ; and with many tears besought the council 
to put him to death immediately. He was beheaded on the 
26th of July. His sentence ran that he had spoken of religion 
with contempt, and asserted that laws, both divine and human, 

* P. Henry, ii. 442. f Ep. 76, May 28th, 1547. % Spon, 1. c. 



216 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



were but the work of man's caprice ; — that he had written 
obscene and ungodly letters and verses, and maintained that 
fornication was not criminal when both parties were con- 
senting, thus seeking to overthrow the ecclesiastical discipline, 
and to derogate from the authority of the consistory ; — that he 
had threatened the Reformers and clergy, and had especially 
spoken ill of Calvin ; — that he had written letters to excite 
the French court against the latter, and induce the King 
of France to complain of him; and lastly, that he had 
threatened the council itself.* 

Two or three years after Gruet's execution, a treatise filled 
with the most horrible blasphemies was found in a garret of 
his house, which some have supposed to have been the book 
known by the title " De tribus Impostor ibus." t But the aim 
of Gruet's work was to show that the founders of Judaism 
and Christianity were criminals, and that the latter was 
justly crucified; whereas the treatise " De tribus Imposto- 
ribus" was a philosophical essay, which, without resorting 
to blasphemy, endeavoured to prove in a quiet and even 
sorrowful spirit, that the revelations of Moses, Christ, and 
Mahomet are impostures, and that only natural religion can 
be regarded as true. Gruet's book was publicly burnt by 
Calvin's advice in May 1550. J 

That Gruet had adopted the most detestable principles of 
atheism cannot be doubted ; yet it can hardly be said that 
he was executed for them. The only evidence against him 
on this head, at the time of his trial, was the two sheets 
written in Latin, which Calvin himself did not hold to be 
his composition. With regard to the charge of high treason, 
the evidence seems to have been very slender, or rather 
none ; and but little account is taken of it in the sentence 

* P. Henry, ii. 444. 
+ Spon, ii. 50. The authorship of this work has been variously ascribed to the 
Emperor Frederick II., to his chancellor, Pierre de Vignes,to Boccacio, Machiavel, 
Aretin, and others. See Barbier, Diet, des Ouvrages Anonymes, &c. } iii. 648. 
X For some account of it see P. Henry, ii., Beil. 16. 



CHAP. VI.] 



AFFAIR OF GRUET. 



217 



pronounced against him. On the whole a verdict of capital 
punishment seems to have been arrived at, not from any 
single charge, but from the cumulative charges ; and among 
these it is impossible not to be struck with the prominent 
place occupied by those which concerned Calvin's system of 
discipline, and himself personally. The impression left by 
the proceedings, is, that Gruet was the victim of Calvin's 
ascendancy, and of his desire of making the power of his 
consistory absolute. That he was for Gruet's execution 
appears from a letter of his to Viret dated on the 24th of 
July, two days before it took place, in which he condemns 
the hesitation of the syndics. In this he says : " There is 
nothing new here. The syndics are protracting Gruet' s affair, 
against the wish of the council ; which however does not 
protest, as it ought. You are aware that there are few discreet 
men among them."* We have before seen that Calvin enter- 
tained a supreme contempt for the council, which consisted 
of men infinitely below himself in intellect and acquirements, 
and whom he was therefore easily able to govern. 

The affair of Gruet made the Libertines furious against 
Calvin. He could not walk the streets without being 
insulted and threatened. Writing to Farel on the 21st of 
August he says : " Letters were daily received, especially 
from Lyons, from which I learnt that I had been killed 
more than ten times over."t I n the letter to Viret just 
referred to he mentions being warned of dangers which 
awaited him in several quarters ; but that he dissembled his 
knowledge of them, in order that he might not seem too 
solicitous about himself. He observed the same line of con- 
duct towards his followers in France, by extenuating, out of 
policy, the reports in circulation respecting the troubles 
which surrounded him at Geneva. In a letter to the French 
Protestants, dated on the same day as that to Yiret (July 24th), 
he says : J " I do not doubt, my beloved brethren, that every 



* Ep. 80. 



f Ep. 81. 



Ep. 79. 



218 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



day brings yon many tidings, as well from this place as from 
Germany, which will prove a stumbling block to those who 
have not taken sufficient root in the faith of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; but with regard to yourselves, I am persuaded that 
you are so strengthened by the Lord, that you can never 
be shaken in your faith, either by these or still graver 
matters. ***** As to the rumours circulated respecting 
our seditions, they are, for the most part, concocted by the 
retailers of them during their journey ; for if you were here 
you would not perceive the tenth part of them. We have, 
indeed, too many of a stiff-necked generation, who now and 
then endeavour to throw off the yoke in order to abolish the 
discipline of the church by their tumults. Among them are 
to be found both old and young ; but the latter, especially, 
are most depraved, and recalcitrate because they are not 
allowed an unbridled licence. A little while ago they made 
a disturbance about a very trifling thing, namely, because 
we had prohibited slashed breeches; though the same had 
indeed been done twelve years before. Not that we cared 
about the thing itself, but because we saw that through the 
chinks of those breeches a door would be opened to all sorts 
of profusion and luxury. In the midst of these skirmishings 
the devil suggested something else to them; whence these 
grave whisperings and reports : for when they found us 
discreeter than they wished, they gave vent to the venom 
which lay concealed in their breasts. But it is nothing 
but smoke, and their threats only the froth of the pride 
of Moab, whose ferocity must at length fall with a 
crash. " 

During this period Calvin inveighed against his opponents 
from the pulpit with the greatest possible warmth. He 
betrayed no symptoms of flinching ; and, during his whole 
struggle with the Libertine party, showed so much resolution 
and courage as forms a perfect contrast with the picture 
which he sometimes draws of his own pusillanimity. In this 



CHAP. VI.] 



PERRIN IMPRISONED. 



219 



respect he seems to have belonged to a numerous class of 
persons who dread danger in the contemplation of it, but 
when actually in its presence show no want of nerve and 
resolution. His constancy was now about to be rewarded 
by a temporary triumph over his adversary Perrin and his 
family. Perrin had gone to the court of France as ambas- 
sador from Geneva, where he was received with much 
distinction. The Cardinal du Bellay had sounded him as to 
whether some French troops, of which he should have the 
command, could not be received into Geneva, in order to 
frustrate the plans which the emperor was suspected of medi- 
tating against Switzerland.* From a letter of Calvin's, before 
quoted, f it appears that Perrin was then still in France, but 
that his wife had returned to Geneva, and was living in the 
house of her father Fabri, where she was indulging in her usual 
revels and disorders. The absence of Perrin, and the execution 
of Gruet, had produced a sort of calm ; and Calvin describes 
the town as tranquil, and the council as favourable to him. 
But these appearances were deceitful. Calvin having con- 
fessed at a baptism that his wife and her former husband 
had once embraced the Anabaptist tenets, Perrhx's spouse 
took occasion to calumniate Calvin's, saying that she must, 
then, be a strumpet; J and, in other respects, carried her 
conduct to such a violent extreme that both she and her 
father were thrown into prison. Perrin having returned 
from France, complained of this, and declared that he 
would be revenged for such an affront; for which menace 
he also was sent to prison to keep them company. This 
excited a sedition, which broke out in the following month, 
and which Calvin has described in a letter to Viret, dated 
on the 17th of September, 1547. § In this he says : " Our 
enemies are so blinded that they have no regard to decency. 
Yesterday's proceedings not a little served to verify the 



* Galiffe, cited by P. Henry, ii. 437, note. 
t Ibid., and Ruchat, v. 322. 



f Ep. 81. 

§ Ep. 82. 



220 LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. [chap. vi. 

suspicion I had previously entertained that the object of 
those persons' insolent behaviour was to excite some 
tumult. The Two Hundred had been summoned, and I 
had told my colleagues the day before that I should attend 
the assembly. I arrived too early, and as several of the 
members were walking in the street, I went out by the 
gate next the town-hall. Here I heard a mixture of 
confused cries, which immediately increased so much that I 
concluded them to be a sure sign of sedition. I ran to the 
spot, and, though the sight was fearful, threw myself into 
the midst of the crowd. This seemed to astonish them : yet 
they all ran towards me, and snatched me hither and thither 
to preserve me from harm. I called God and man to witness 
that Iwas come there with the purpose of exposing my body 
to their swords ; and exhorted them, if their intention was to 
shed blood, to begin with me. This address had a soothing 
effect, especially upon the better disposed portion of the 
people. At length I was dragged to the hall of the 
assembly, where I found new contests, in which I inter- 
posed. All are of opinion that my intervention prevented 
a great and horrible carnage. Meanwhile, my colleagues 
had been mixed up with the crowd. I at length succeeded 
in tranquillising the members and getting them to sit down, 
and then addressed them in a long and vehement speech 
suited to the occasion, with which, it is said, all except a few 
were wonderfully touched : who, however, were as loud in 
their praises of what I had done as the well-disposed. God 
hath hitherto invested me and my colleagues with the privi- 
lege that even the most depraved at least pretend to regard 
the smallest injury offered to us in the same light as a 
parricide. Yet wickedness hath now reached such a pitch 
here that I hardly hope that the church can be upheld 
much longer, at least by means of my ministry. Believe 
me, my power is broken, unless God stretch forth his 
hand." 



chap, vi.] DISTURBANCES PERRIN" DISGRACED. 



221 



The concluding sentences of this letter afford a glimpse 
of Calvin's real feelings during these struggles, though he 
thought it expedient to hide them, in order that his followers 
might not be discouraged. A few days after its date, an 
event occurred which for some time humbled his principal 
opponent. Perrin's transactions with the Cardinal duBellay 
had excited a suspicion against him of entertaining a design 
to deliver Geneva into the hands of the French. He was 
accordingly arrested on a charge of treason, and of intending 
to quarter two hundred French cavalry, under his own 
command, in Geneva. For this offence he was capitally 
indicted, and but for the mediation of the Bernese it would 
probably have gone hard with him ; as the council paid no 
attention to his excuse that he had accepted the command 
of these troops with the reservation of the approval of the 
Genevese government, nor to his declarations that he had no 
design against Geneva. The ambassadors of Berne endea- 
voured to divert the storm from the head of Perrin to that 
of a Frenchman residing at Geneva, named le Magnifique 
Maigret, whom they accused of the same designs as were 
imputed to Perrin : but the latter was expelled from the 
council, and the office of captain-general was suppressed.* 
The mediation of the Bernese procured, however, the release of 
Perrnr's wife and father-in-law, but on condition of making 
their submission, and acknowledging their fault before the 
consistory ; and through the same mediation Perrin himself 
was also released on the 29th of November, f 

Shortly after these events a sort of truce was patched up 
between the parties, but in which Calvin had no confidence 
from the beginning. Writing to Farel on the 2nd of December, 
1547, he says: J "As you exhort me and my colleagues to 
persevere courageously, I must tell you that neither dangers 
nor troubles daunt me ; but, as in the midst of these 



* See Registers, Oct. 9th, in Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 
f Ruchat, v. 324—326. + Ep. 83. 



222 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. 



confusions I am sometimes at a loss how to act, I wish that 
God would grant me my dismissal. A foolish wish, you will 
say. I know it. But Moses — that remarkable example of 
patience — did he not complain that too heavy a burthen was 
laid on his shoulders ? But though these thoughts trouble 
me, they do not obtain my approval. We have frightened our 
opponents a little, yet they show no signs of amendment. 
Such is their impudence, that they receive all our reproaches 
with deafness ; in short, I think many are incurable. We 
have hitherto tried all means without success : the last act 
remains, at which I should like you to be present. I suppose 
Viret told you what a serious tumult the Xiord hath quelled, 
for I wrote an account of the matter to him The Two 
Hundred have appointed me and ten other persons to 
arrange these disputes. Our qidevant Caesar denied that he 
entertained any grudge against me, and I immediately met 
him more than half way. I addressed him in a grave and 
moderate speech, using, indeed, some sharp reproofs, but 
not of a nature to wound ; yet though he grasped my hand 
whilst promising to reform, I still fear that I have spoken to 
the deaf. I wish you could cheer me again by coming 
hither. Some, I am aware, have complained to Viret of my 
immoderate asperity. I know not whether he believes the 
charge ; but I suspect he thinks that I indulge my warmth 
too much. I have invited him hither ; for, as the man says 
in Terence, 'Si Mc esses aliter sentires ; } so might I likewise 
exclaim, f If thou wert I, I am not certain of what thou 
wouldst do/ But this must be swallowed with the rest of 
my bitter draughts." 

On the 10th of January following the ministers appeared 
before the council of Two Hundred, and made some grave 
remonstrances as to the divisions and animosities which 
prevailed in the city, recommending the magistrates to effect 
a reconciliation among themselves, and to live together in 
peace. This had such an effect, that some even proposed, 



chap, vi.] ATTEMPTS AT ACCOMMODATION. 



223 



for the sake of conciliating matters, that Perrin should be 
restored to his dignities. 

But this truce proved a hollow one ; though Perrin behaved 
quietly for some time, with the design of paving his way to 
the syndicate, which he actually obtained in the following year, 
1549. Meanwhile we find Calvin engaged in two or three 
collisions with the council. On the 9th of July, he and 
another minister were admonished by that body, for their 
violence in the pulpit, which however they would not consent 
to abandon. * As their violence in this instance appears 
to have been directed against the disorders of the Genevese 
youth, it can hardly be condemned as culpable, though 
it might have been injudicious : but the license which 
Calvin and others allowed themselves in attacking the con- 
stituted authorities from the pulpit, was highly reprehensible. 
For these attacks they were summoned several times before 
the council, who admonished them to abstain from them; 
and told them that if they had any complaints to make, they 
should be made in private, f An accident which happened 
to Calvin in this year brought him into a serious dilemma 
with that body. He had intrusted to Viret's servant a letter 
containing many complaints against the Genevese council ; in 
which, among other things, he said that they wanted to govern 
without God, and that he had to combat their hypocrisy. J 
This letter was handed to the syndics ; and Calvin, writing to 
Farel, respecting the matter, 10th of August, 1548, says:§ 
" So far as I can conclude from what is reported to me, my 
letter has been handed to the council, in which the following 
is the worst passage : ' Our people, under pretence of Christ, 

* " Calvin ayant blame certains de'sordres avec une trop grange colere, et 
un autre ministre ayant dit que la jeunesse de Geneve vouloit renverser la 
religion : le Conseil les fait exhorter a l'avertir des abus qu'ils remarquent, et 
a ne pas crier en chaire de cette maniere." — Eegistres, 9 Juillet, 1548. "lis 
repondent que leur conscience y est interesse, et que c'est leur oter la liberte du 
ministere." — Ibid., 12 Juillet. Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 

f Ruchat, v. 360. J Spon, ii. 51. § P. Henry, ii. 448. 



224 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VI. 



want to rule without him.' They are of opinion that this is 
a deadly arrow that I have shot against them. But I am 
prepared to suffer any kind of death, if I serve but the cause 
of truth " One Troillet, who owed Calvin a grudge, and 
took every opportunity of opposing him, made himself very 
busy on this occasion, and translated the letter — which, 
however, seems to have been written some years previously * 
— into French, in order to circulate it through the city. This 
man, a native of Geneva, where he had led no edifying life, 
had formerly retired into Burgundy, and assumed the 
character of a hermit. About the year 1545 he returned to 
Geneva, and putting on a great appearance of sanctity, 
endeavoured to obtain an appointment as minister; and by 
bribing some of the council, he had almost attained this 
•object : but Calvin, who saw through his hypocrisy, and 
who was likewise unwilling that the church discipline which 
he had established should be violated by the interference of 
the council in the appointment of ministers, succeeded, by 
his remonstrances, in inducing that body to revoke their 
nomination, f Hence Troillet' s attempted revenge. Calvin 
was summoned before the council ; and the letter having been 
produced, he was obliged to acknowledge his hand-writing, 
and to make the best excuse he could. The affair, however, 
threatened to produce serious consequences ; and Calvin 
summoned his friends Farel and Viret, who had pre- 
viously visited Geneva in the spring of the year, to come 
and assist in extricating him from the dilemma. The 
former took much interest in Calvin's struggle with the 
Libertines. He it was who exhorted him to write his work 
against them ; and he had himself written a sharp letter to 
Perrin, which however only served more to embroil the fray. 
As the danger increased, he reminded Calvin of God's having 
called him back to Geneva; and that the servants of the 
Lord are exposed to constant struggles, which they must 



* Ruchat, v. 362. 



f Ruchat, v. 265. Beza, Vita Calv. 



chap, vi.] CALVIN EMBROILED WITH THE COUNCIL. 225 

overcome through faith and hope. Might he not have 
added, charity, and completed the number of the christian 
graces ? Viret, too, though the mildness of his temper led 
him sometimes to disapprove of Calvin's asperity, remained 
always attached to him ; and thus the three friends formed 
a sort of spiritual triumvirate, which their opponents regarded 
with jealousy and suspicion.* 

At first the council seemed inclined to accept Calvin's 
excuses, and to bury the matter in oblivion, as he was not 
again summoned on the day that had been appointed ; but 
he suspected that this was only a trick of his enemies, in 
order to keep the accusation hanging over him, and to bring 
it forward when convenient. He therefore wrote to Viret 
on the 20th of September to the following effect : — " If 
I ever needed your assistance it is now more than ever 
necessary. If you came here and complained of the injustice 
done you, adding that you had not deserved of this Republic 
that your letters should be stolen, and desiring that they 
should be returned to you, the affair might take a better 
turn."t 

Viret obeyed this summons, and came to Geneva, as 
did also Farel. Calvin's anticipations were not falsified, 
and he was cited before the council to answer for his offence 
on the 8th of October. From the following entry in the 
Registers, under date of the 15th of that month, it would 
appear that Viret had undertaken his friend's cause with so 
much warmth, probably in demanding back his letters, as to 
give offence to the council: "Farel has represented how 
much attached Calvin, Viret, and himself have always been 
to the interests of this city, and has begged the council to 
regard Viret with the same eye as formerly ; also to have the 
same esteem and respect for Calvin, whose merit was so 
sublime that there was no man on earth who combated 

* Calvin to Viret, May 15th, 1538. See Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, ii. 83. 
f See P. Henry, ii. 449, note. 

Q 



226 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIH". 



[chap. VI. 



Antichrist with such efficacy of Jesus Christ. He likewise 
stated that he, saw with regret that they had not that 
deference for this servant of God which was due to him." * 

Notwithstanding the interference of his friends, however, 
Calvin was again cited before the council on the 18th of 
October ; when he was reprimanded, and told that in future 
he would do well to consider better of his duty towards the 
magistrate. Farel was also present on this occasion, and 
made a speech for his friend, in which he said that the 
council had had little consideration for the character and 
merits of Calvin, which were so distinguished that it might 
be affirmed there was no man who equalled him in learning ; 
that they should not be so nice as to what he might have 
said of them, since he had freely reproved even the greatest 
men, such as Luther, Melancthon, and others ; and that they 
should not credit what a heap of worthless people, mere 
pillars of the public-house, whispered against so great a 
man. This speech seems to have had the effect of turning 
the reprovers into the reproved; for it was resolved that 
Farel should be thanked for it.f 

Thus ended this affair. In November Perrin was restored 
to his councillor ship and to his office of captain- general, 
notwithstanding that the latter had been legally abolished. J 
In a letter § to Viret in November, 1548, Calvin says : " There 
is nothing new here except that our comic Csesar has been 
suddenly restored to the stage from which he had been driven. 
His friends availed themselves of the absence of a great 
number of the members of the council, and when there were 
scarce twenty present, carried his restoration by a majority." 
This must have been in the council of Two Hundred. This 
event gave new vigour to Perrin's followers. Early in the year 
they had begun to distinguish themselves by a party badge, 

* See Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques, under date. f Ibid. 

X Trechsel, Antitr., i. 185. 
§ Gen. MS., apud P.Henry, ii. 433, note. ' 



chap, vi.] PERRIN RESTORED AND ELECTED SYNDIC. 227 

a kind of cross worn over their breasts ;* and after Perrin's 
restoration they indulged in the grossest abuse of Calvin, 
and many, out of hatred to him, refused to attend the 
communion. The council endeavoured to conciliate matters, 
and on the 18th of December brought about an amnesty 
between the principal parties, which was even sanctioned by 
an oath; after which ceremony the ministers and council 
supped together in order to obliterate all rancour.f But 
Perrin was merely dissembling in order that he might pave 
the way to the syndicate, the election for which office was 
approaching. Calvin was not deceived by appearances, and 
in a letter to Farel dated on the 12th of December, expressed 
his perplexity and apprehensions. J In the following 
February (1549) Perrin not only obtained the syndicate, 
but was even elected first syndic, contrary to established 
custom. § But before proceeding with Calvin's struggles 
against his domestic enemies, we must take a survey of his 
labours at this time in the general cause of the church. 

* " Une croix decoupee sur leur pourpoint." This had been the old device of 
the Eignots or Eidgenossen in 1518 (Ruchat, i. 328). 

f Beza, who erroneously places Perrin's restoration in the spring. Vita 
Calv.j anno 1548 ; and Eegistres, Oct. 18, in Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 
t Ep. 95. § Trechsel, 1. c. 



Q 2 



228 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN, 



[chap. vii. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Work against the Council of Trent — Tract against judicial astrology — The 
Interim — Melancthon's concessions — Calvin blames Melancthon — Death of 
Calvin's wife — Beza's arrival at Geneva — The Zurich Consensus — Laelius 
Socinus — Fetes abolished at Geneva — Calvin's Tract De Scandalis. 

During the course of these annoying, and sometimes 
dangerous, contests with the Patriot, or Libertine, party, 
Calvin found time not only to discharge his ordinary duties 
as pastor and lecturer, but to compose several works, and to 
take an active part, by correspondence and otherwise, in the 
general affairs of the Protestant Church. In 1546 he either 
translated, or caused to be translated, into French, the "Loci" 
of Melancthon, of which the preface at least is indubitably 
from his pen.* The book appeared at Geneva in that year 
under the title of " La Somme de Theologie de Melancthon." 
We have already seen that these two theologians were not 
entirely agreed upon some points of doctrine, and especially 
that respecting election and predestination : yet in his preface 
Calvin made some considerable concessions to Melancthon's 
opinion on this head, in a remarkable passage, which there 
will be occasion to produce in the next chapter. 

In the following year (1547) Calvin brought out his tract 
addressed to the church of Rouen, against a certain Franciscan, 
a follower of the Libertines, and then a prisoner in that town, 
entitled, " Contre un Franciscain, Sectateur des Erreurs des 
Liber tins which piece may be considered as an Appendix 
to his former tract against that sect. A more important 



* P. Henry, i. 376. 



chap, vii.] WORK AGAINST THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 229 

work, which he published in November of the same year, 
was that against the proceedings of the Council of Trent, 
originally written in Latin, and entitled "Acta Synodi 
T?*identince, cum Antidoto" That council had been assembled 
in the previous year ; and Calvin prefixed to his book the 
address of the Pope's legates on opening the first session. 
In his preface, though he allows great weight to councils, 
he denies their infallibility, and supports his view by the 
authority of St. Augustin. He then specially objects to that 
of Trent on account of its composition. It is argued, he 
says, that a council cannot err, because it represents the 
Church. But what if I deny this argument ? This council, 
he continues, consists of some forty bishops, of whom even 
the warmest patrons of such assemblies must be heartily 
ashamed. Passing over the prelates of other nations he 
confines himself to the representatives of France, the Bishops 
of Nantes and Clermont ; both of whom he describes as 
equally ignorant and stupid, and as unacquainted with even 
the very rudiments of theology : the latter, moreover, as 
infamous and despicable for his dissolute life. He then 
attacks the monkish portion of the council ; and affirms that 
there is no school of theology so wretched but what must 
despise all the doctors of Trent. But were its members 
angels they were all dependent on the nod of the Pope ; for 
every decree was sent off post to Rome, where it was mangled 
and altered to suit the views of the pontiff and his advisers. 
" The couriers return ; a session is proclaimed ; the notary 
reads something which nobody dares to impugn ; the asinine 
tribe signify their assent with their ears. Behold the oracle 
which is to bind the religion of all the world ! " * He then 
proceeds to give, in the body of his tract, the decrees of the 
several sessions, with remarks upon them. 

This piece occupied Calvin two or three months, and was 
composed amid those struggles with his opponents which 



* Calvin, Opera, viii. 22 1 , A. 



230 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VII. 



have been related in the preceding chapter. Writing to 
Fare! on the 21st of August, 1547, he says : "I have begun 
my attack on the Tridentine Fathers, but the work proceeds 
slowly, for I have not a single hour free from interrup- 
tions."* When it was published he forwarded a copy to 
Farel, who sat up all night to read it.f Such was his 
admiration of Calvin's literary talents. Farel also despatched 
a letter to Calvin, convey ing his warm approval of the work, 
respecting the success of which the latter seems to have 
entertained some apprehensions ; for in his reply he says : 
" I begin to like my ' Antidote/ now I find that you 
approve of it so much, for before I was not satisfied with it. 
It may be that you, who know my daily labours, and the 
contests by which I am exhausted, are led to pardon the 
more imperfect parts ; but, for myself, I am surprised how I 
can at this time publish anything readable." J 

Calvin's tract was answered, on the part of the papists, by 
Cochlseus. In the following year, he re-published it in 
French, in a more popular form, omitting many learned 
references and allusions. § 

In 1548, Calvin published his u Commentaries on six of 
St. Paul's Epistles, viz., Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, 
Philippians, Colossians, and Timothy." || In the following 
year appeared his tract against judicial astrology, ei Admo- 
nitio adversus Astrologiam quam judiciariam vocant ;" a work 
which shows that Calvin was much in advance of his age on 
such points, when some of the most enlightened minds were 
not free from that superstition. Melancthon, in particular, 
was a slave to it.^f What rendered it more difficult for 
Calvin to refute this pretended science was, that he was 

* Ep. 81. f Kirchhofer, ii. 91. 

$ Ep. 83., Dec. 28th, 1547. § P. Henry, ii. 305. || Ibid., p. 379. 

% Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 410. Socinus, writing to Bullinger from 
Wittenberg, August 28th, 1550, says: "All depend upon Melancthon alone, 
who is so addicted to judicial astrology, that I know not' on which he most 
depends, the stars, or their Maker and Ruler." See Trechsel, Antitr., ii. 154, 
note. 



chap, vii.] TEACT AGAINST JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY. 



231 



unacquainted with the true system of the universe. Though 
the work of Copernicus was written in 1530, it was some 
years before it became known; and it was not till the 
beginning of the following century that Galileo first ventured 
to adopt his system. Beza, in his work on the plague, shows 
that he had heard of it, but considered it a paradox ; and in 
the last edition of his " Institutes/' Calvin still considers 
the heavens as turning round the earth. * This erroneous 
system favoured astrology, inasmuch as it made the heavens 
appear only subsidiary to the earth ; and thus occasioned a 
difficulty which Calvin found it hard to meet. The astro- 
logers defended their views by the circumstance that the 
prophet Jeremiah calls the stars signs ; and confirmed their 
argument by appealing to the first chapter of Genesis. 
A knowledge of the true system would have upset this 
reasoning; but Calvin could meet it only by referring to 
other texts of Scripture, as Isaiah, chap. xliv. v. 25 " That 
frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners 
mad;" and by entering into a long argument to show in 
what sense Jeremiah used the word signs. f He was of opinion 
that they do not denote when we should put on a new 
garment, nor whether we should transact our business on 
Monday rather than Tuesday or Wednesday, and things of 
the like sort; but whether we should sow, let blood, take 
physic, or prune our trees, &c. : for though he disbelieved 
judicial astrology, he thought that our bodies, as well as 
other natural objects, had some sympathy with the stars, 
and that a knowledge of the latter was useful in medicine 
and agriculture. So difficult is it even for the most vigorous 
understandings, when unaided by the light of science, to 
shake off ancient prejudices in such matters. He was also 
of opinion that some meaning might be attached to comets. 
Besides astrology — which he thinks the revival of polite 
letters, if not the gospel, should have put an end to, — 



* P. Henry, ii. 392. 



f Calvin, Opera, viii. 505, B. 



232 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[CHA?. VII. 



Calvin also ridicules the alchymists in this tract; in the 
course of which he exhibits considerable profane learning, 
referring frequently to Greek and Roman history, and 
quoting Terence, Aristophanes, and other authors. 

In 1549, Calvin also published his tract against the Interim. 
The Emperor Charles Y. having overthrown the Smalcaldic 
league and reduced its leaders, the Elector of Saxony and the 
Landgrave of Hesse, to submission, found himself enabled to 
dictate the footing on which religion should be placed through- 
out the empire : a step to which he was still further prompted 
by his desire of mortifying the Pope, at whom he was offended 
for having transferred to Bologna the sittings of the council 
which had been assembled at Trent. The system known by 
the name of the Interim, and which was to be the rule of 
religious practice till the decision of a general council, was 
laid before the diet assembled at Augsburg on the 15th of May, 
1548. The Elector Joachim II. of Brandenburgh is thought 
to have had a great share in bringing it about ; at all events, 
his court preacher, John Agricola, who passed for a Protestant, 
but was suspected of having been bribed, was one of the 
three persons concerned in drawing it up; the other two 
being Roman Catholics, namely, Pflug and Michael Helding, 
titular bishop of Sidon. The only concessions of any import- 
ance made to the Protestants were the celebration of the 
communion in both kinds, and permission for married 
priests to retain their wives. Few of the princes assembled 
at Augsburg ventured to oppose the promulgation of the 
Interim ; but the Elector Maurice entered a protest against 
it. Throughout the greater part of Germany it was received 
with indignation. Hesse and ducal Saxony, Hamburgh, 
Bremen, Lubec, Luneberg, rejected it ; at Magdeburg, it was 
abused and ridiculed ; Strasburgh held out against it for a 
considerable time ; and Constance it was necessary to reduce 
to obedience by force of arms.* 

* Robertson, Charles V. } b. ix. Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 285, et seq. 



CHAP. VII.] 



THE INTERIM. 



233 



The correspondence of Calvin and his friends at this 
period indicates the alarm which this measure had excited. 
Myconius, a minister of Basle, writing to him on the 18th 
of August, 1548, says : " The imperial Interim has been 
established in Suabia, and is now impending over the 
inhabitants of Constance. I have for some time feared that, 
through them, the emperor will annoy us also with this 
unrighteous measure. On the 4th of August white linen 
surplices were sent to each of the ministers of Augsburg by 
the new council, and they were ordered always to wear them 
when preaching. Those^ however, were excluded from the 
gift who had not been previously anointed. They were also 
compelled to swear that they would utter nothing against 
his imperial majesty, nor against the Interim, on pain of 
condign punishment. A plain token of what liberty is left 
to preach the gospel ! At Nuremberg there is said to be 
only one mass-priest, who is surrounded with guards when 
going to or returning from church, and, when performing 
mass, in order to preserve him from injury. So much braver 
are people there than at Augsburg ! The Strasburghers still 
hold out, but I know not how long it will last. Many of the 
chief people are said to be emigrating, &c. " * 

More than four hundred pastors are said to have been 
expelled from Suabia and the Rhenish provinces for refusing 
the Interim, f Amongst those placed in a painful and 
dangerous position by its progress, was Martin Bucer, who, as 
is well known, was at length obliged to fly from Strasburgh to 
England ; where he was appointed professor of divinity at the 
University of Cambridge. The candour and moderation of 
Bucer' s mind, to which Erasmus frequently bore his willing 
testimony; J his ardent wish to see those difficulties reconciled 
which separated the Swiss and Lutheran churches ; as well as 
his personal friendship for Luther, whom he accompanied in 

* Calvin, Epp. etResp., Ep. 84. + M. Adamus, Vita Melancthonis, p. 344. 
X M. Adamus, Vita Buceri, p. 213. 



234 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VII. 



his critical appearance at Worms, in 1521 ; may perhaps have 
led him to adopt terms too lax and ambiguous with regard 
to disputed points of doctrine, and thus to incur the hatred 
and suspicion of many : * but his conduct on this occasion in 
flying from Strasburgh rather than adopt the new system, 
shows that he was not disposed to make any compromises at 
the expense of his conscience. The Elector of Brandenburgh 
and the Palatine, knowing his pacific disposition, had sent 
for him, in the hope that he might be induced to subscribe 
the Interim, and thus, by his example, lead others to do so 
likewise ; but Bucer, after examining it, refused to put his 
name to it. 

It was natural that Calvin should feel much interest in the 
affairs of Bucer and the church of Strasburgh, with which 
he had, for a considerable period, been so closely connected. 
His correspondence with Bucer grew very frequent at this 
time ; and the latter seems to have derived much benefit 
from his consolation and advice. Writing to him, on the 
30th of September, 1548, Bucer says: "We have not yet 
made up our minds here. Our folks besought the emperor 
to leave us at least a few churches for the service of pure 
religion, but he has peremptorily refused their request. 
What they will do God knows : nothing but a miracle can 
save us. I beseech you, pray for us." t In another letter, 
dated on the 9th of January, 1549, Bucer mentions that the 
richer citizens threatened to leave Strasburgh unless the 
emperor were conciliated : and that more than fifty had 
already doue so. J In a third letter, written on the 7th of 

* Hence Calvin exhorts Bucer, when in England, to use his endeavours with 
the Protector for a further Reformation, in order to clear himself from such 
suspicions : " I especially recommend this to you, in order that you may free 
yourself from the ill-will with which, as you are aware, you are unjustly regarded 
by many ; for they always name you as the author or abettor of temporising 
counsels. I know that this suspicion is too deeply fixed in the minds of some to 
be easily eradicated, whatever may be your efforts." — Ep. 93. 

f Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 85. $ Ep. 96. 



chap, vii.] THE INTERIM. 235 

February, he says : " Offer up your prayers, my excellent 
brethren, for the remnant of our church and ministry ! The 
bishop hath exacted a promise that preaching against the 
Interim shall not be allowed here ; and consequently the 
ministry of myself and chief colleagues, will be at an end, 
if not to-day, at least very shortly. My affairs are all in 
readiness ; and therefore, though the Lord hath not yet 
signified the time of my departure, pray to him fervently 
that he may both point it out and conduct me." * In this 
letter he represents many parishes as already destitute of 
ministers, and considers it probable that the directions of the 
Bishop of Spires would be followed ; f namely, that those 
who refused to be ordained by the bishop, or who, being 
ordained, were unwilling to serve in the churches in the 
manner prescribed by the Interim, should be sent to the 
galleys. From another letter, dated on the 20th of the same 
month, { it appears that the bishop would allow the Strasburgh 
ministers only a fortnight for deliberation. Meanwhile, 
Bucer was apprehensive that the emperor might command 
their detention out of anger at the desertion of so many 
churches. He was resolved, however, not to desert his 
congregation till forced to do so ; nor had he yet determined 
whither he should bend his steps, provided he were allowed 
to fly : but he expresses a hope of being able to visit Calvin 
before proceeding further. § 

Though it was forbidden to write against the Interim under 
pain of death, no fewer than thirty-seven attacks upon it 
appeared, including that of Calvin, || whose situation at Geneva 
did not expose him to any great risk of incurring the penalty. 
From a letter to Farel, dated on the 10th of August, 1548, 
it appears that Calvin had been exhorted to undertake this 

* Ep. 98. =f Whom he calls irapaaKoirov for imarKoirov. £ Ep. 100. 
§ One of Calvin's letters to Bucer at this period (Ep. 94) contains an elegant 
parallel between the Christian religion and heathen philosophy. 

|| P. Henry, ii. 370. IF MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, ii. 370. 



236 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vir. 



task by Bullinger, but that he bad referred tbe matter to 
the judgment of Bucer. Bullinger himself was among those 
who entered the lists on this occasion, at the instance of 
several illustrious persons, and particularly of George Duke 
of Wiirtemberg and Count of Montbelliard. * Calvin's 
enemies at Geneva appear to have opposed the publication 
of his book. Writing to Farel, on the 12th of December, 
1548, he observes : " I have at length shamed my opponents 
into a permission to publish my book, and the whole matter 
has been left to my judgment and good faith. But when I 
compare and reflect upon the insults which our brethren 
have to endure, I almost seem to myself to be only playing 
an amusing game in the shade." f His work consists of a 
detailed attack on the different heads of Catholic doctrine. J 

Saxony, under the guidance of the elector, Maurice, bent 
before the storm, and thus escaped the evils which afflicted 
the southern states of Germany. Melancthon' s conduct 
had at first excited the displeasure of the emperor, but 
Maurice supported him on this occasion. The concessions 
which that Reformer afterwards made led to the adiapho- 
ristic controversy, or dispute concerning things indifferent. 
Some attempt at accommodation was made in what was 
called the Leipsig Interim, in December, 1548. The Saxons, 
however, did not finally resolve as to what parts of the 
imperial Interim they should observe till the 1st of May 
in the following year, in a conventus, or synod, held at 
Grimma ; the resolutions adopted at which were published in 
the following July. § Melancthon has been much blamed 
for the course which he pursued in this conjuncture, and 
Calvin himself was one of his censurers. But Melancthon 
was placed in a very delicate and difficult situation ; and an 

* Ruchat, v. 350. It does not appear, however, that Bullinger's work was 
printed. f Ep. 95. 

X Its title is, "Interim adultero-Germanum. Cui adjecta est : Vera Christiance 
Pacificationis et Ecclesice JReformandce Rcdio" 8vo, 1549. 

§ Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. S05. 



CHAP. VII.] 



melancthon's concessions. 



237 



unprejudiced examination of his conduct will show that his 
line of action was the best, not only for his country, but 
also for the Saxon church. Let us hear how he himself 
explains his motives in a letter to Joachim Moller, in 
September, 1549: "I have frequently advised," he says, 
" that no alterations should be made, because people immedi- 
ately exclaim that we wish to persecute the gospel. But 
the court insists on some concessions to the emperor, in 
order that he may not send an army into the country and 
oppress the church here, as he has done in Suabia. I know 
not whether we shall satisfy him by restoring some indifferent 
ceremonies ; but the courtiers say so, and press upon us the 
necessity of not exposing both our country and our church 
to desolation for such trifles. We therefore confine ourselves 
to contending only for necessary things, as purity of doctrine, 
and the form of the Lord's Supper; in order that the Popish 
mass may not be introduced among us, as in Suabia. But 
I have never contended about festivals, the order of the 
Psalms, and the like ; which, in my opinion, would not become 
a modest servant of the church in these sad times. Some 
there are, indeed, who will not hear of any order, especially 
of laws; but this is being more than unmannerly. For 
several years previously, I have wished that some of the 
ceremonies now proposed should be introduced into our 
church ; for such a conformity, in outward things, is favour- 
able to unity : though here also a medium must be observed ; 
and therefore, in necessary things, we make absolutely no 
alteration."* 

Such is the account which Melancthon gives of his motives, 
with which, probably, no reasonable and moderate man will 
be inclined to find fault. Nevertheless he was assailed from 
various quarters. The severest attacks proceeded from 
Magdeburg, where a young man named Matthias Flaccius, 
out of spite, as Melancthon suspected, that he had not 

* See Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 308. 



238 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vii. 



obtained a vacant professorship at Wittenberg, had, with 
his friends the exiled bishop Amsdorf, the deacon Matthew 
Judex, Nicholas Gallus, and some others, erected what was 
called The Chancery of God ; a body which sent forth one 
abusive tract after another against the Saxon theologians, 
and particularly Melancthon, for having complied with some 
parts of the imperial Interim.* Melancthon took no notice 
of these attacks till towards the end of 1549 ; and then 
answered with great moderation. Maccius replied by 
publishing a number of letters which Melancthon had written 
to Luther during the diet of Augsburg in 1530, in order to 
show the world what a timid, pusillanimous man he was, and 
accompanied them with many bitter annotations, f 

It is, however, for the opinion of Calvin, that we are here 
more particularly concerned. In a letter to Valentine Pacseus, J 
a Leipsig doctor, he expressed his fears of the dissensions 
which these disputes about things indifferent would introduce 
into the church; a foreboding which was destined to be 
realised in an unhappy manner in that of England. To 
Melancthon himself he addressed, in 1551, a letter of free 
expostulation ; in which, after adverting to the scandal which 
the contests with the Magdeburghers occasioned to the 
whole Protestant Church, and expressing his opinion that 
Melancthon was not wholly free from blame, he says 
" The sum of your defence amounts to this, that provided 
purity of doctrine be retained, we should not pertinaciously 
contend respecting outward things. But if what I hear 
everywhere asserted be true, you extend the boundaries of 
things indifferent too widely. You are aware that the 
worship of God has been adulterated by the Papists in a 
thousand ways. The more intolerable of these corruptions 
we have removed ; but now the ungodly, to achieve a triumph 
over the vanquished gospel, command that they shall be 
restored. Do you call it obstinacy if any one hesitates to 



* Matthes, Leben Mdamihons, p. 306. f Ibid.,]?. 311. J Ep. 115. 



CHAP. VII.] 



CALVIN" BLAMES MELANCTHON. 



239 



comply ? That, I am sure, is quite foreign to the modesty of 
your temper; and, if you have betrayed some weakness in 
complying, you should not be surprised if many blame 
you for it. Besides, some of these things which you call 
indifferent, are manifestly at variance with the word of God. 
On the other hand, it may be, as is usual in such disputes, that 
some persons urge certain things with too much preciseness ; 
and regard others in which, after all, there is no such great 
harm, with too much detestation. Still, if my opinion is 
worth anything in religious matters, you should not have 
conceded so much to the Papists : partly because you have 
relaxed what is fixed by the hand of God ; partly because 
you have occasioned the gospel to be scandalously 
insulted. * * * * I do not see your drift when you 
say that the Magdeburghers are only quarrelling about a 
linen vest. I think that the use of the surplice is one 
of the many absurdities hitherto retained among you; 
but good and pious men everywhere loudly proclaim that 
you have likewise admitted still grosser corruptions, and 
which manifestly tend to vitiate purity of doctrine, and to 
overthrow the church. Let me recall to your memory Avhat 
I once said to you, if you forget it : that it would be making 
ink too precious if we hesitated to testify by our writings 
that which so many martyrs of the common class daily seal 
with their blood. I spoke this when we seemed far out of 
the reach of danger ; and now that the Lord hath brought 
us into the arena, we ought to strive the more manfully. 
Your case, you are aware, is very different from that of the 
common herd; for it is more ignominious in the general 
even to tremble, than it is for the common soldier to fly ; 
and though the timidity of others should be pardoned, every 
one will say that the vacillation of a man like yourself is 
not to be borne. Thus you alone, by yielding only a little, 
have excited more complaints and regrets than the open 
defection of a hundred ordinary people. And though I am 



240 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VII. 



thoroughly persuaded that it is not the fear of death that 
has driven you to swerve one iota from the right line, yet 
I suspect that apprehensions of another sort may possibly 
have biassed your mind. The detestation with which you 
regard inhumanity and rigour is well known to me ; but 
you should recollect that the servants of Christ are bound 
to have as much care of their reputation as of their life."* 

Calvin, in the last sentence, seems to have touched 
the real spring which actuated Melancthon. It was easy 
for him, a sojourner in a strange city, where he was out 
of the reach of danger, and where he owned no superior, 
to lecture his brother Reformer on the duty of firmness ; 
and some of his remarks, taken in a general sense, are 
excellent : but he makes not the least allowance for the 
various feelings which must have been at work within 
Melancthon. The latter had to listen at once to the dictates 
of loyalty and patriotism ; to consult the commands of his 
sovereign and the interests of his country ; and to avert, by 
timely concession in some minor points, that entire overthrow 
of the Protestant Church, by force of arms, which had taken 
place in many parts of southern Germany. These were 
the motives which led him to submit in silence to some 
alterations which he did not quite approve, and which had 
been introduced by the council of the elector, f But what 
a prospect do these squabbles hold out for the future union 
of the Protestant Church ! A silly and scandalous, we had 
almost said, a childish, quarrel about a surplice and a few 
minor ceremonies, divides the Protestants into hostile 
factions at the moment of their most eminent peril ! With 
such feelings how should they hope in quieter times to 
arrange those more serious questions, which turned on really 
important points of doctrine ? 

Prom one of Calvin's subsequent letters,} it appears 

* See Ep. 117. 

+ See his letter to Hardenherg, quoted by Matthes, p. 309, note. 
J Ep. 141. 



chap, vn.] DEATH OF CALVIN'S WIFE. 



241 



that Melancthon was so offended at these remonstrances 
as to tear up the letter which contained them ; and, indeed, 
Beza himself acknowledges that Calvin had, on this occasion, 
lent too ready an ear to Melancthon' s accusers, and censured 
him undeservedly. * 

We will now advert to some occurrences in the domestic 
life of Calvin. On the 5th of April, 1549, he lost his wife. 
As convenience, rather than affection, had prompted his 
marriage, so the death of his partner does not seem to have 
caused him any excessive grief. The letters, indeed, in which 
he announces the event to his friends, contain the usual 
phrases of decent regret ; but his bereavement did not for a 
moment divert him from the ordinary routine of his occupa- 
tions. He thus announces his loss in a letter to Farel:f 
" The news of my wife's death has, perhaps, already reached 
you. I make what efforts I can to prevent being devoured 
by my grief, in which I am assisted by my friends, who do 
all they can to assuage my sorrow. When your brother left 
this place her life was already almost despaired of * * * 
At six o'clock I was called from home ; at seven, after being 
removed into another room, she immediately began to sink. 
Perceiving her voice failing, she requested the prayers of 
those around her. About this time I returned ; and, though 
she was speechless, she discovered much agitation of mind. 
After saying a few words to her about the grace of Christ, the 
hope of eternal happiness, our fellowship in life, and her 
impending departure, I shut myself up to pray. She had 
been fully sensible of my prayers, and attentive to my 
admonitions. Before eight she expired, so placidly, that 
they who were present could scarce discern the moment of 
her decease. I swallow my grief in such a manner that I 
have not intermitted my functions for a moment. Nay, the 
Lord hath, meanwhile, exercised me with other contests." 

Calvin's equanimity on this occasion excited the surprise 

* Beza, Vita Calv., anno 1549. + Ep. 106, April 11th, 

R 



242 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VII. 



of Viret. In acknowledging Calvin's letter, conveying the 
intelligence of his wife's death, he says : " What I hear from 
many credible witnesses respecting your constancy and 
fortitude under your domestic affliction, makes me think 
that I should address you with congratulations rather than 
condolence ; and the more so from my intimate acquaintance 
with what you call the tenderness of your mind : * for that, 
I think, is a more fitting name for it than softness ; a 
quality which would prevent your acting as you do. Hence 
I admire the more the strength of that Holy Spirit which 
works within you, manifesting itself truly worthy of the 
name of Comforter. Should I not acknowledge its powers 
in you, who, though you bear so stoutly the bitterest and 
most touching of all domestic afflictions, are accustomed 
to feel the misfortunes of others as if they were your own ? 
Believe me, this is no common virtue, and no ordinary proof 
of God's mercy towards you. It makes me the more ashamed 
of myself that, Avhen in the same situation, I could not show 
the like fortitude, nor even a shadow of it : for my calamity 
so overwhelmed and prostrated me, that the whole world 
seemed a solitude; nothing delighted me, nor tended to 
assuage my grief. Often did I accuse myself for bearing 
my affliction with so much less fortitude than became, I will 
not say the office which I hold, but even a person who had 
made the least acquaintance with that heavenly wisdom in 
which I not only professed myself a disciple, but a teacher of 
others ; and that I could not apply to my own malady those 
remedies which I am accustomed to administer to others who 
are in want of them. You, on the contrary, are so far from 
being cast down and broken in spirit, that you afford an 
encouraging example, by showing that you can act up to 
the precepts which you inculcate ; and that you are not only 
able, when unafflicted yourself, to give sound advice to the 
suffering, but to apply it to your own case in the like 

* Calvin had said, " Nosti animimei teneritudiuem, velmollitiem potius." 



chap, vii.] death of calvin's wife. 



243 



circumstances ; and thus to have the same sentiments both 
in happiness and affliction. I have been incredibly relieved 
by hearing, not merely from report, but from eye-witnesses, 
that you discharge all the duties of your office with an 
unbroken spirit, and as efficiently, nay, with even more success, 
than before ; and that you have retained such a mastery over 
yourself in the consistory, in the pulpit, — in a word, in all 
your affairs both public and private, as to excite the astonish- 
ment of every body ; and this, too, at the very time when the 
recentness of your grief must have torn and prostrated you." * 

As Viret's letter is dated but four days after the death of 
Calvin's wife, there was, indeed, some ground to wonder at 
the latter' s fortitude; for he must have been pursuing his 
usual avocations while his wife lay still unburied. Such was 
either the coldness of his temperament or the sustaining 
power of his religion. Idolette left some children by her 
former husband, the Anabaptist. Their fate seems to have 
caused her some anxiety in her last moments ; which, though 
she betrayed it by her behaviour, she seems to have feared 
to communicate to Calvin. Guessing her feelings, Calvin 
considerately engaged to provide for them as if they were 
his own. On her remarking that she had already commended 
them to God, Calvin observed that that was no reason why 
he should not also do his part; to which she replied: "If 
they, be under the protection of God, I know that they will 
be commended to you." f It does not appear what became 
of them afterwards. 

Within a month after this event, Beza (Theodore de Beze), 
whose history was thenceforward to be so closely bound up 
with that of Calvin, arrived at Geneva, in company with seven 
other French gentlemen, whom the persecutions had driven 
from France. J Beza was born on the 24th of June, 1519, 
at Vezelay, a small but strong town of Burgundy. His 

* Ep. 102. t Ep. 106. 

X " Huit gentilshommes Francais, parmi lesquels est Theod. de Beze, 

R 2 



244 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vii. 



family was of noble blood ; but bis father, who was bailiff or 
mayor of Vezelay, was neither a rich man nor a well educated 
one. Beza owed his education to two paternal uncles, both 
of them unmarried, wealthy, and occupying distinguished 
positions in society : one of them being a councillor in the 
parliament of Paris, and the other, Abbot of Froidmort. At 
the tender age of three, we find Beza, who had already lost 
his mother, installed at Paris, in the house of his uncle the 
councillor, who took upon himself the whole charge of his 
education. In 1528, he was sent to Orleans for the benefit 
of the instructions of Melchior Wolmar; and when that 
learned German accepted the office of Greek professor at 
Bourges, he carried his young pupil with him to that city. 
At that time Calvin was also at Bourges ; but the disparity 
in their ages — Calvin being ten years older than Beza — 
must, at that time of life, have prevented any great intimacy 
between them. When Wolmar left Bourges, Beza, at the 
desire of his uncle, the abbot, who, on the death of the 
councillor, had undertaken his education, returned to 
Orleans to study the law. Beza's early life gave no token 
of that sanctity to which he afterwards attained. He was 
alike distinguished by the profligacy of his morals and the 
elegance of his scholarship, and especially by his Latin 
poetry, with which he beguiled the hours that should have 
been devoted to the drier study of the law. Catullus and 
Martial were his models; and in order to come nearer to 
his originals, he did not eschew those freer passages which 
the modesty of the modern muse is in general compelled to 
avoid.* His life at Orleans was as free as his verses; and 
though he nowhere confesses this, says his biographer, yet 

arrivent ici, et obtiennent la permission d'y demeurer." — Registres, 3 Mai, 1549. 
Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 

* On this subject Beza says in the preface to the second edition of his 
poems, p. 8, (Stephanus, 1569): "Etsi enim, quod vere dico, illorum obscenitate 
sic offendebar ut oculos etiam ipsos a quibusdam inter legendum averterem, 
tamen, ut ilia setate non satis cautus, ita illius quidem melle, istius vero salibus 



chap. vii. J beza's arrival at geneva. 



245 



he would have done so had circumstances allowed him to be 
as candid as St. Augustin.* After a residence of some years 
at Orleans, he returned to Paris, where his handsome person, 
his talents, and a comfortable income, caused him to be 
everywhere well received.f His uncle had procured him a 
prebend of 700 livres, and promised to get him the reversion 
of his own abbey, worth 15,000 livres. At Paris Beza 
became acquainted with some of the first scholars of the 
age — as Turnebus, Buchanan, and others. J He himself 
acquired considerable fame as a court poet ; and this cir- 
cumstance, together with his various amours, prevented him 
at this time from thinking much on religion. A poetical 
compliment addressed to Charles V., on the occasion of his 
passing through Paris in January, 1540, attracted the notice 
of that emperor. The lady whom he celebrates in his poems 
under the name of Candida seems to have been the wife of 
a tailor living in the Rue de Calandre at Paris, § with whom 
he had formed a criminal connection. A dangerous illness 
in 1548, said to have been the result of his profligacy, 
awakened more serious thoughts, and occasioned his journey 
to Geneva, where he married the woman with whom he had 
cohabited in France. || His intention was to set up a book 
shop at Geneva, in partnership with a friend named Crespin. 
In order to provide the necessary funds he sold his benefices; 
for though he had renounced the errors of the Uoman 
Catholic Church, he did not scruple to enrich himself with 
her spoils, which he considered lawful prize, according to the 
example of the Israelites when quitting the land of Egypt. % 

capiebar, ut in scribendo quam simillimus eorum (de ipso charactere loquor) 
evadere studerem." — A fine piece of prudish hypocrisy ! 

* Schlosser, Leben des Th. de Beza, p. 20. 

f " Juventute autem fiorens, otio, pecunia, rebusque aliis omnibus potiusquam 
bono consilio abundans," says Melchior Adamus, Vita Bezce. 
t Prcef. in Poem., p. 6. § Launay, cited by Audin, Vie de Calvin, ii. 327. 

|| P. Henry, ii. 477. Schlosser, however, (p, 24), represents him as having 
been secretly married to a young woman whom he had not succeeded in 
seducing. «ff See Schlosser, p. 27. 



246 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. VII. 



On his arrival at Geneva, Calvin persuaded him to give up 
his book-selling scheme, and to devote himself to theology; 
and as no situation adequate to his abilities then offered itself, 
either in that city or its neighbourhood, Beza made a short 
visit to his old tutor Wolmar, at Tubingen. During his 
absence, the place of Greek professor at Lausanne having 
become vacant, Calvin used all his exertions to procure it for 
him, and he was installed in it by the council of Berne on 
the 6th of November, 1549.* Beza behaved with candour 
on this occasion ; and before he entered upon his office con- 
fessed having written his amatory poems, as he tells us in 
the preface to those pieces which he republished. Calvin, who 
looked forward to find in Beza a clever and devoted partisan 
of his doctrines, directed him in his theological studies. As 
he had not leisure for a regular course of the fathers and 
schoolmen, Beza chiefly devoted himself to the explanation 
of the Scriptures in their original tongues. After he had 
been a little while at Lausanne he published a French poem 
entitled "Abraham Sacrifiant" which drew considerable 
attention. Soon afterwards the French refugees in that 
city solicited him to edit Paul's Epistle to the Romans ; 
a work which laid the foundation of his edition of the 
New Testament." 

It was shortly after Beza's arrival at Geneva that Calvin 
proceeded to Zurich to arrange a Concordat with Bullinger 
and the clergy of that town respecting the sacraments. The 
quarrel between Luther and the Swiss churches on the 
subject of the eucharist, which, as we have seen, had been 
conducted with so much violence on the part of the former, 
was calculated to damage the general interests of the 
Protestant Church ; and as some suspicion existed, that 
Calvin himself was in this matter inclined to the Lutheran 
tenets, many persons thought it highly desirable that some 

* Schlosser, p. 28, and Haller's Diary in the Mus. Ilelv., ii. 87. 
f P. Henry, I. c. 



:hap. vii.] 



THE ZURICH CONSENSUS. 



247 



agreement should be come to on the subject between the 
churches of Zurich and Geneva. But though Calvin stood 
aloof in the quarrel referred to, and even censured the 
mode in which the Zurichers had conducted it, still there 
is no reason to think that he partook in Luther's 
views. He had, indeed, found fault with Zwingli and 
(Ecolampadius for having, in their zeal to refute tran- 
substantiation, and to prove that Christ's body, after its 
reception into heaven, would remain there until the day of 
judgment, omitted to state the nature of his presence in 
the supper;* thus apparently reducing the rite to a mere 
sign or symbol. Nay, the different view which he took from 
those Reformers, had, as he himself tells us, rendered him 
acceptable to Luther and his followers : f yet there is no 
reason to believe that he had ever adopted the Lutheran 
tenet of impanation. The first edition of his " Institutes," 
the formulary of union in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, 
presented to the synod of Berne in 1537, J as well as his 
tract " On the Lord's Supper," published in 1540, show the 
contrary. § Nevertheless Calvin evinced no anxiety on this 
occasion to form a junction with the Swiss; and indeed 
throughout his life his predilection for his own peculiar 
doctrines, and his disinclination to coalesce with any other 
church unless they were unreservedly adopted, are remarkable. 
It was only at the pressing solicitation of Farel that he now 
entered upon the project of a union with Zurich. When 
Farel first suggested it Calvin alleged the obstinacy of the 
Zurichers, the view which Berne would take of the matter, 

* See his tract De Ccend Domini, p. 8, B., Opera, Amst. ed. 

t See his Secunda Defensio, sub init. $ Ruchat, v. 379. 

§ In this last tract, the following passage, as well as several others, would 
exclude the Lutheran dogma : " Only I would remark in passing, that to con- 
sider Christ to be under the bread and wine, or so to conjoin him with them as 
that our mind cleave to them, and be not elevated to heaven, is a diabolical 
madness." — De Caind Domini, Opera, viii. 7, A., Amst. ed. Compare the Con- 
fessio Fidei nomine Ecclesiarum Gallicarum, drawn up in 1542 (Ibid., p. 97, B.) 



248 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. VII. 



the difficulty in leaving Geneva, and other excuses: but 
perceiving from a correspondence with Bullinger that that 
minister was more likely to come into his views than he had 
anticipated, he at length agreed to comply with his friend's 
wishes.* Accordingly, towards the end of May, 1549, he 
proceeded to Neufchatel, in order to carry Farel with him 
to Zurich to assist in arranging the Concordat. The scheme 
of it must, however, be regarded as belonging to Calvin. In 
the preceding March a synod had been held at Berne which 
had been attended by all the ministers of that canton, to the 
number of three hundred and twenty ; and to this assembly 
Calvin had addressed a letter exhorting them to unity in 
the sacraments, and which he accompanied with twenty 
articles respecting them, which afterwards formed the basis 
of the Zurich Consensus, f The latter document itself 
was drawn up with Calvin's own hand; and in the preface 
he allowed Farel the credit of having been the original 
promoter of the union. J 

Calvin's doctrine on the subject of the eucharist was, as is 
well known, a mean between those of Zwingli and Luther. § 
The manner in which he differed from the latter is thus 
described by Planck : " According to Luther's opinion the 
body of Christ descends miraculously during the sacrament, 
and is brought into such connexion with the outward 
symbols of bread and wine, that it is not only present with 
them, but in them, and under them, and can thus be 
received through the mouth by anybody who partakes of the 
symbols, and even therefore by a man without faith. But 
according to Calvin the body of Christ does not descend into 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, ii. 93, et seq. 

f This letter, together with the articles, will be found in P. Henry, Leben 
Ccdvins, ii., Beil. 18. 

t This Consensus is published among Calvin's tracts, and a translation of it 
will be found in Ruchat, v. 370, et seq. 

§ It is not, however, certain" that Zwingli altogether denied a spiritual 
presence in the eucharist. There is a difference on this subject in his earlier 
and later works. 



CHAP. VII.] 



THE ZURICH CONSENSUS. 



249 



the sacrament, but the soul of the recipient ascends into 
heaven through faith ; and being thus brought into contact 
with Christ's body, receives a power of holy life."* 

Calvin, in one of his letters to Bullinger during the 
correspondence before mentioned, has himself explained the 
points in which he differed, or seemed to differ, from the 
Swiss church on this subject. In this he says : " When 
the symbols of Christ's body and blood are offered to us in 
the supper, we hold that they are not offered in vain, but 
that we derive a real benefit from them : whence it follows, 
that we eat his body, and drink his blood. By so speaking 
we neither turn the symbol into a reality, nor confound 
them both together, nor include the body of Christ in the 
bread, nor suppose it to be infinite, nor dream of a carnal 
transfusion of Christ into us, nor set up any other such an 
invention. You assert Christ, in his human nature, to be 
in heaven ; we do the same. The name of heaven conveys 
to you the notion of distance of place ; and we likewise 
readily confess that Christ is separated from us by local 
distance. You deny the body of Christ to be infinite, and 
hold it to be contained in its own circumference. Here, too, 
we openly and ingenuously testify our assent. You would 
not mix the sign with the thing signified ; and we also 
sedulously inculcate that the one must be distinguished 
from the other. You severely condemn the doctrine of 
impanation, and to this condemnation we subscribe. What 
then is the sum of our opinion ? That when we behold the 
bread and wine here on earth our souls must be elevated 
to heaven to partake of Christ, and that he is then present 
to us when we seek him beyond the elements of this world. 
Nor is it lawful for us to accuse Christ of deceit ; which, 
however, would be the case, unless we held that the reality 
was exhibited to us together with the sign. You also concede 
that the sign is not an empty one ; therefore it only remains 



Quoted by P. Henry, ii. 472. 



250 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vir. 



that we should define what it comprehends. When we briefly 
answer that we are thereby made partakers of Christ's body and 
blood, so that he dwells in us and we in him, and thus enjoy 
his universal benefits, is there anything, I pray, obscure or 
absurd in these words ?"* 

Hence it appears that the chief difference between Calvin 
and Bullinger on the subject of this sacrament was, that 
though both believed in a real participation of the body and 
blood of Christ, the former, with his usual love of system, 
would explain the manner of it, namely, by the elevation of 
the soul to heaven, which Bullinger was willing to leave 
undefined. t The same difference marks the two theologians 
on the subject of grace and election. Here Calvin defined 
his doctrine in the most precise terms, and in the harshest 
manner ; whilst Bullinger, though he recognised the election 
of God, was unwilling to pursue it through all its logical 
consequences, and especially to that of reprobation. And 
thus, though Calvin seized the opportunity offered by this 
Consensus for introducing his favourite doctrine, yet he could 
not get Bullinger to go all the length he wished upon 
that head. 

At Zurich the Consensus was arranged between the clergy 
and lay councillors : Calvin forwarded the draft of it for 
Bullinger's approval, and received it back, before the end of 
August, with a few verbal alterations in the preface and 
epilogue. In the following October it appeared in print, 
with a letter from Calvin to Bullinger, and the latter's answer. 
The clergy of Berne assented to it, but it was not allowed 
to be printed in that town. J Melancthon and the more 
moderate Lutherans also agreed with Calvin's view ; and the 

* MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, ii., Beil. 18, 6 Cal. Jul., 1549. 
I do not mean, however, to assert that Calvin pretended to explain the 
miraculous manner in which the virtue of Christ's body is communicated to us 
in the sacrament, which would have been absurd. On this subject see his tracts 
De vera Participatione, &c, Opera, viii. 727, A., Amst. ed., and Be Ccend 
Domim, near the end. $ See Haller's Diary, Mus. Helv. } ii. 87. 



CHAP. VII.] 



L^LIUS SOCINUS. 



251 



Zurich Concordat might possibly have led to a union of the 
whole Protestant Church but for the subsequent interference 
of Westphal and others ; unless, indeed, the doctrine of 
election should have proved a hindrance. With whatever 
moderation that doctrine was expressed in the Consensus, 
Melancthon, as Calvin himself tells us, on receiving a copy 
of it, ran his pen through the passage in which the elect are 
distinguished from the reprobate. * 

At this time Lselius Socinus, the son of Mariano Socinus, 
a celebrated jurisconsult of Bologna, was residing at Zurich. 
Lselius had been intended for his father's profession ; but a 
restless and inquisitive spirit drove him in preference to the 
study of theology, though without any intention of devoting 
himself to the service of the Church. At the age of twenty- 
one he went to reside at Venice, where he separated from the 
Romish communion. That city being neither a safe residence 
for a heretic, nor containing any learned men who could solve 
the religious doubts by which he was tormented, Socinus 
removed, in 1547, to Chiavenna;t a place noted for hetero- 
doxy in religion, and where Socinus seems to have imbibed 
some of those peculiar opinions which afterwards distinguished 
the sect called after him and his nephew, Faustus, Socinians. 
After a short residence at Chiavenna, Socinus travelled through 
Switzerland, France, England, and the Netherlands; and 
towards the end of 1548 or beginning of 1549, came to 
Geneva, where he made the acquaintance of Calvin, The 
sceptical spirit of Socinus was concealed under the modest 
guise of a disciple and a learner; and he was accustomed to 
propose his views in the shape of doubts and questions on 
which he required information, and thus to avoid all 
appearance of dogmatical assertion. The same dissimulation 
characterised the sect which he partly helped to found, whose 
tenets may be regarded as a timid compromise between 
Deism and Christianity. In 1549 we find him addressing 

* See Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 141. f Trechsel, Antitr., ii. 142, et seq. 



252 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. VII. 



some letters to Calvin, in which he proposed the three follow- 
ing questions : — Whether it was lawful for a member of the Re- 
formed Church to marry a Papist ? whether popish baptism was 
efficacious ? and in what manner the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion of the body was to be explained ? Calvin, who seems to 
have been struck with the talents and learning of the young 
Socinus, though he disapproved of his over-inquisitive turn 
of mind, answered these questions in two elaborate letters. * 
In these he wholly condemns marriage with a Catholic ; but 
does not consider popish baptism as inefficacious, but, on the 
contrary, thinks it should be resorted to when none other 
can be had. The reasons he assigns are, that the Papists 
must still be considered as constituting some remains of a 
church, however deformed and corrupt ; and that the character 
of the baptiser, whether he be an atheist, or even a devil, is 
of no consequence as to the validity of the sacrament. With 
regard to the third question — the resurrection of the flesh — 
how should it have been possible to answer a man who wished 
to know the exact manner of it : whether, as our body is 
continually changing, we should receive again that of our 
youth, or of our old age, which cannot be said to be the same 
bodies ? whether those who have been mutilated in life would 
rise with perfect bodies ? f and other questions of the same 
description. Calvin answered Socinus as well as he could on 
such a subject in his first letter, by referring him to the 
different texts of Scripture relating to it ; at the same time 
declaring the question to be one rather of curiosity than 
utility. But when he found that Socinus was not satisfied 
with his answer, Jie refused to enter further into the question. 

Towards the end of 1549, J the general assembly suddenly 
abolished the four festivals, which had still continued to be 

* Epp. 103 and 104. 
+ See the tract of Socinus on this subject in Trechsel, Antitr., ii., Beil. 
445. 

J On the 1 6th of November. See Ruchat, v. 425. Beza places this occur- 
rence in the following year ; but he is not always correct in his dates. 



CHAP. VII.] 



FETES ABOLISHED AT GENEVA. 



253 



celebrated at Geneva: namely, those of the new year, the 
Annunciation, the Ascension, and Christmas ; a step which 
created a feeling of great discontent at Berne, and indeed 
almost led to an open rupture with that city. Calvin has 
given an account of this matter in a letter to Haller, and in 
one to another minister,* in which he defends himself from 
the charge of having had any part in it. In these he states 
that, when he came to Geneva, he found that all festivals had 
been already abolished by Farel and Viret, except the Lord's 
day ; that the four celebrated at Berne were re-established 
by the same decree of the people by which Farel and himself 
were banished; that upon his return from exile he might 
easily have effected their abolition ; but that seeing the heat 
which prevailed on the subject between the different parties, 
he preferred a middle course, namely, that these festivals 
should be observed in the morning by shutting the shops 
and abstaining from business, but that after dinner they 
should be reopened, and work resumed; that this practice 
had led to disorder, and had excited a suspicion among 
strangers that the Genevese were not well agreed among 
themselves, inasmuch as some of the citizens observed this 
regulation, whilst others did not ; and that he had therefore 
exhorted the council to find some remedy for this difference ; 
but had neither advised, nor even desired, the abolition of 
the festivals, concerning which he had not been consulted, 
and which he had heard of with the greatest surprise. 

All this may be literally true : yet Calvin himself acknow- 
ledges that he was not sorry for the change which had been 
effected; and in his position it was easy enough to show 
which way his wishes inclined without expressing any direct 
and open opinion upon the subject. But what throws 
something more than a suspicion on the candour of this 
defence is the fact that in December 1544, as appears from 
the Registers, Calvin had actually recommended to the 
council the abolition of the festival of Christmas, as well as 



* Epp. 118 and 128. 



254 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VII. 



of the other three. * At the same time, as he remarks in his 
letter to Haller, there seems to be no good reason why the 
Bernese should have taken such offence at the line of conduct 
adopted by the Genevese, who were surely the best judges 
of what the interests and discipline of their church required. 
Calvin was so much blamed for this change that it was even 
rumoured in some quarters that he meant to abolish the 
Sabbath, f 

In 1550 Calvin introduced another alteration in the 
discipline of the Genevese church. It being thought that 
sufficient effect was not produced by mere preaching, he 
determined that at certain seasons each minister, accom- 
panied by one of the elders, should visit the houses of his 
parishioners, for the purpose of interrogating them as to 
then faith, and giving them instructions. Beza ascribes 
wonderful effects to this practice. J But, meanwhile, this 
extraordinary strictness of discipline was developing one of its 
usual results by producing the most consummate hypocrisy; 
as will always be the case in any religious system which 
demands too great an outward appearance of piety, and 
exactions too rigid for ordinary human nature. Some of the 
greatest scoundrels in Geneva were the most regular in 
attending the sermons. In the course of the year we find 
Calvin complaining to the council respecting the sentence 
of a criminal executed for coining base money, in which was 
inserted that he was one of those who had taken refuge at 
Geneva for the sake of religion, and that he went to church 
every day ; a clause which he maintained to be derisive and 
contrary to God's honour. § But is hypocrisy no offence in 
the eye of God ? And if it be, how can it be contrary to his 
honour to denounce a man as a hypocrite, as well as a 

* " Le jour de Noel sera celebre comme a 1' ordinaire quoique Calvin ait 
represente au Conseil que Ton pourroit se dispenser de faire cette fete de meme 
que les trois autres." — Rcgistres, 1 9 Dec, 1544. Grenus, Fragments Biogrcvphiques, 
sub anno. f Ep. 128. J Vita Calv., anno 1550. 

§ " Calvin se plaint comme d'une derision contraire a l'honneur de Dieu de 
ce que l'on a inse're dans la sentence d'un criminel execute pour fausse monnoie, 



chap, vn.] calvin's teact "de scandalis; 



255 



rogue ? But Calvin would not have a word whispered against 
the refugees. 

To the offence which had been taken at the abolition of 
the fetes Beza ascribes the origin of Calvin's work " De 
Scandalis" the dedication of which to M. de Normandie is 
dated the 9th of July, 1550, the anniversary of Calvin's 
birthday. Scandalum is here used in its primitive sense of 
"a stumbling-block/' or, "rock of offence;" and scandals 
are divided into three principal classes; first, the offence 
which proud and worldly men take at the simplicity of 
the gospel, &c. ; second, the sects and divisions which arise 
among the preachers of the gospel; third, the scandals 
which spring from the wickedness, hypocrisy, ingratitude, 
and vanity of worldlings. Amongst the contemners of the 
gospel Calvin names Babelais, Agrippa, and others. 

Laurent de Normandie, to whom this work is dedicated, 
had filled the office of lieutenant du roi at Noyon, and had 
left his native town, with Calvin and his family, for the sake 
of religion. The popish inhabitants of Noyon held them 
both in the greatest detestation; and in 1551, a false report 
having been spread of Calvin's death, they offered up solemn 
prayers on the occasion.* Some time afterwards M. de 
Normandie was burnt in effigy at Noyon by an arret of the 
parliament of Paris. By the same arret the minister Abel 
was cited to appear before the court of Noyon, though 
ridiculously enough, no mention was made of Calvin. A few 
days after the burning of M. de Normandie's effigy a great 
fire occurred at Noyon, which, by a sort of miracle, left the 
house of Calvin's father standing, though all around it were 
reduced to ashes. The person who related this to Calvin 
regarded it as a judgment of God against the inhabitants 
of Noyon, for their conduct towards M. de Normandie. f 

qu'il s'etoit retire icji pour la religion et alloit tous les jours au preche." — 
Megislres, 3 Nov., 1 550. Grenus, Fragmens Biograpliiques. 

* Calvin to Farel, Ep. 140. f Ep. 143. 



256 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

St. Augustin and Pelagius — Predestination — Case of Bolsec — Calvin's account 
of his tenets — Bolsec indicted — The Swiss churches consulted — Bolsec's 
life in danger — Bullinger's advice to Calvin — Letter of the Bernese 
ministers — M. de Fallais patronises Bolsec — Calvin's tract on Pre- 
destination^ — Calvin and the English Church — Affair of Dr. Hooper — 
Cranmer's principles and projects of union — Calvin's letter to him — 
Misconceives Cranmer's situation. 

It has been seen that in his book against Pighius, od the 
subject of predestination, Calvin had only entered into what 
may be called the philosophical portion of the question, or 
that concerning the freedom or servitude of the human will ; 
whilst the treatment of the more awful and important part 
of it, namely, that of absolute decrees, had been deferred to 
some future opportunity. His multifarious occupations, and 
perhaps also the want of some stimulus to draw him out, had 
hitherto prevented him from again taking up his pen on this 
subject; but an event which happened in the year 1551, not 
only led to a public agitation of the question, but induced 
him to finish the work which he had begun against Pighius. 
This was his quarrel with Bolsec on the subject of his favourite 
doctrine. 

St. Augustin, who flourished towards the end of the 
fourth, and the beginning of the fifth centuries, was the 
first of the Fathers who introduced the doctrine of pre- 
destination into the Christian church. The youth of 
Augustin had been dissolute, and his education irregular; 
but a lively genius, and an inquisitive turn of mind, led him 
into researches respecting the origin of evil, the nature of 
God, and other difficult and abstruse questions, which only 
served to perplex and bewilder an understanding untrained 



CH\P. VIII.] 



ST. AUGUSTUS" AND PELAGIUS. 



257 



by proper discipline and culture. On the very threshold of 
manhood and reason he fell into the Manichean heresy, in 
which he remained for nine years ; during which period he 
also indulged in the dreams of judicial astrology. He owed 
his conversion to the Catholic faith chiefly to St. Ambrose, 
Bishop of Milan; but he had passed his thirtieth year 
before he became a catechumen.* Even after his conversion, 
however, he was still haunted by his metaphysical notions, 
and sought a knowledge of God as much in the books of 
the Platonists as in the Scriptures. In the latter he was 
particularly struck by the writings of St. Paul ; and it was 
whilst meditating in his garden on one of the epistles 
of that Apostle, that Augustin, like St. Paul himself, felt a 
sudden call to a holy life : though in his case the con- 
version seems at all events to have been assisted by a 
growing weakness of the lungs, which disqualified him for 
the vocation which he followed at Milan of professor of 
rhetoric. 

When, in his fortieth year, Augustin composed his 
" Questions on the Epistles of St. Paul," he still con- 
sidered faith as springing, not from grace, but free will ; f 
and it was not till three years afterwards, in his books 
addressed to Simplician, that he first laid down the doctrine 
of predestination : to which he is said to have been led in 
examining these words of St. Paul : " What have ye that 
ye have not received? "J This account sufficiently shows 
that the Fathers before his time were not predestinarian ; 
for, had that been the received doctrine of the early church, 
St. Ambrose, and the other instructors of Augustin, would 
scarcely have left him to discover it by his own unassisted 
researches. This fact was urged against him by the Pelagians, 
who not only objected that the primitive Fathers did not teach 
predestination, but that they were actually adverse to it.§ 

* Tillemont, Mem. Eccl , xiii. 51 , et seq. f Ibid., p. 189. + Ibid., p. 286. 
§ " For the Pelagians formerly attacked St. Augustine with the same 

S 



258 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYUsT. 



[chap. VIII. 



From this objection Augustin endeavoured to escape by 
affirming that the Pelagian heresy not having appeared in 
their days, they had not found it necessary to declare their 
sentiments — a subterfuge which still leaves unexplained the 
fact of their being against the doctrine.* Indeed, it was only 
late in life, and after he had been heated by the Pelagian 
controversy, that Augustin himself adopted the doctrine in its 
most unmitigated form : for he was constantly touching up 
and altering his writings ; and his most noted works on the 
subject are two, written just at the close of his life, entitled, 
" On the Predestination of Saints," and " On the Gift of 
Perseverance." f 

Pelagius, the opponent of Augustin, pushed his heresy to 
the contrary extreme ; and in his zeal for good works, 
excited by the scandalous lives both of the clergy and laity 
of his time, rejected altogether the operation of grace. 
His own life is said to have been a model of purity 3 but, if 
he practised what he preached, we may remember that he 
was released, through peculiar circumstances, from some of 
those temptations to which in his youth Augustin had 
succumbed. % The latter, as is well known, obtained the 
victory over his adversary; and Pelagius, and his assistant, 
Ccelestius, were twice anathematised by different Popes. 
But the doctrine of St. Augustin, though thus stamped with 
orthodoxy, seems never to have been very generally popular 
in the Romish Church ; and — such is the strange mutability, 
of human opinion — we find, as we approach the period of 

reproach, namely, that the other writers of the Church were against him 
(adversos). He first, therefore, defends himself by observing, that previously 
to the heresy of Pelagius, they had not delivered the true doctrine of predestina- 
tion very accurately or acutely. ' What need then is there,' says he, 4 to search 
their works, who, living before that heresy sprang up, had do occasion to enter 
into a question of such difficult solution ? ' " — Calvin, De ceterna Dei Prcedestina- 
tione, Opera, viii. 596, B. 

* Dr. Tomline has shown, in his " Refutation of Calvinism," c. v., that [the 
doctrine of the ancient Fathers was in direct opposition to the peculiar tenets of 
Calvinism. *h Tillemont, Mem, Eccl., xiii. 921. % Ibid., p. 562. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



ST. AUGUSTIN AND PELAGIUS. 



259 



the Reformation, that the sentiments of Pelagius had gained 
a complete ascendancy among the Romish hierarchy, and 
were become the very cause and instrument of that corruption 
against which they were originally directed. Good works 
were regarded not only as a sure passport to heaven for the 
doers of them, but the supererogatory ones of the saints 
. formed an inexhaustible fund from which even the grossest 
sinners might draw the same privilege ; and that not only 
with as much sureness as election itself could confer, but with 
the additional advantage of its being obtainable for money. 
But though this gross abuse at first very naturally excited 
the indignation of the Reformers, and drove them back to 
Augustinian tenets in their severest form, which had, indeed, 
never been wholly extinct among the monks of that order, 
and among the Dominicans; yet after a while we find the 
more moderate portion of the Reformers becoming gradually 
sensible of the inconveniences and inconsistencies to which 
the doctrine of predestination led, and consequently, either 
abandoning it, or at least keeping it as much as possible 
in the back ground. 

Hume has somewhere traced the doctrine of absolute 
decrees to a spirit of enthusiasm; and in its founder, and 
many of his followers, this was probably its true origin. 
There is, however, another disposition of mind, which, in 
some temperaments, favours its reception— I mean the love 
of systematising, and of logical deduction. In Calvin, who 
was singularly free both from superstition and enthusiasm, 
it was probably to this quality of mind that we must ascribe 
the adoption of the doctrine ; though he was, perhaps, partly 
led to it by that gloomy view of religion which characterises 
him as a theologian, and which, in the establishment of his 
discipline, induced him to adopt the severities of the 
Mosaic law, intended only for a peculiar people, rather than 
those more lenient and cheerful precepts of Christianity 
which were meant for the use of all mankind. His theory 

s 2 



260 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. VIII. 



on the subject, viewed merely with regard to its logic, is so 
far perfect and consistent as to force those who would escape 
from it into the adoption of two, if not contradictory, at all 
events incongruous propositions. That all things spring 
solely from the will of God ; that he foresees them, because 
he forewills them ; that if man's will were free, then there 
would be another will besides that of God ; that things 
might consequently arise which he had neither foreknown 
nor fore-ordained, and thus the government of the world be 
in a great measure taken out of his hands, and left to 
chance and contingency: these reflections, applied to the 
doctrine of free will, give rise to difficulties which minds of 
the highest order have confessed their inability to solve.* 
Viewed, too, more particularly as to the relation between 
God and man, Calvin's doctrine afforded him an opportunity 
to insist on the duty of humility and entire submission to 
God's will ; and to inveigh against the pride and self- 
exaltation of those who would pretend by their merits to 
wring from him, as it were, the possession of heaven, without 
being indebted for it to his grace and bounty.t 

Though Calvin's scheme was beset with many difficulties, 
there was nothing positively incomprehensible in it; nor 
were there wanting many texts of Scripture, and especially 
in the writings of St. Paul, which he could quote in its 
support and justification. Yet minds equally pious, equally 
acute, and equally enlightened with his own, rejected 
it. They viewed with horror its incompatibility with the 

* " The reconciling of the prescience of God with the free will of man, 
Mr. Locke, after much thought on the subject, freely confessed he could not do, 
though he acknowledged both. And what Mr. Locke could not do in reasoning 
upon subjects of a metaphysical nature, I am apt to think few men, if any, can 
hope to perform." — Letter of Lord Lyttelton to Mr. West, quoted by Dr. Tom- 
line, Refutation of Calvinism, c. iv. 

+ On this point Sir T. Browne very aptly remarks : — " Insolent zeals that do 
decry good works, and rely only upon faith, take not away merit : for, depending 
upon the efficacy of their faith, they enforce the condition of God, and in a more 
sophistical way do seem to challenge heaven." — Religio Medici, Pt. i., § 60. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



PREDESTINATION. 



261 



attributes of God, as known to us both from reason and 
revelation, at the same time that they were struck with its 
inconsistency, not only with the promises contained in the 
gospel, but with the whole scheme of christian redemption. 
That God should call all, yet elect only a few ; that he 
should send his Son into the world to suffer an ignominious 
death for the purpose of saving those whose fate had been 
decided before the foundation of the world, and thus to 
effect a redemption by which nobody was redeemed; that 
he who is essentially just and merciful should consign one 
portion of his creation to eternal misery solely from caprice, 
or, at all events, for sins which he would have necessitated 
them to commit, as if he were the cause of guilt and 
evil : these consequences of the doctrine, besides being 
horrible and revolting, appeared to many minds quite 
as absurd as the logical incongruity to which its rejection 
seemed to lead. Such persons submitted their reasoning 
pride to their conviction of God's mercy and justice, and 
were willing to say that the doctrine of free will led to 
consequences which they could not understand, rather than 
attribute to the Almighty a mode of action utterly incom- 
patible with all their notions of him. From the letter of 
Melancthon to Calvin before quoted, it appears that a friend 
of the former, named Francis Stadianus, was first bold enough 
to avow his belief both in providence and contingency, 
though he admitted that he could not reconcile their 
co-existence. Melancthon himself acceded to his views; 
nor have the researches of more modern inquirers been 
successful in discovering any other outlet, consistent with 
revelation, from this intricate labyrinth.* 

Calvin himself was not insensible of the difficulties 

* u With regard to the question of predestination, I had formerly a friend 
at Tubingen, a learned man, named Francis Stadianus, who used to say 
that he believed both that all things happened by the decree of Divine 
Providence, and yet that they were contingent ; though he acknowledged 
that he could not reconcile these opinions." — Calvin, JSpp. et Eesp., Ep. 48. 



262 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



attending his doctrine. Some of the objections to it he 
evaded, others he denied. When closely pressed, he wonld 
declare that the mystery was too profound for his under- 
standing ; that it was one of the deep secrets of God ; and 
would answer in the words of St. Paul : " Nay but, O man, 
who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing 
formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me 
thus ? " &c* Sometimes he would advance the supralap- 
sarian doctrine, that God decreed the fall of man in order to 
get glory by it.f The objection that his doctrine made God 
the author, or rather, the cause, of sin, which Melancthon 
had brought against it, and which is one of the principal 
ones urged by Bolsec, Castellio, and others, Calvin found it 
difficult to meet. In his book against Pighius he shortly 
dismisses this difficulty with the remark that the solution of 
it is above the human understanding .J In his tract against 
Bolsec he endeavours to explain the matter by the similitude 
of a just king, who, in pursuing a legitimate war arms a 
great many soldiers, who may commit the greatest 
enormities ; yet it would be unjust to impute their crimes to 
the monarch who sends them forth. § This is a striking 
example of the fallacy of using comparisons by way of 
argument. As if, forsooth, there was any analogy between 
an earthly king who merely uses such instruments as he 
finds at hand, and the King of Heaven, who creates those 
instruments ! In his tract against Castellio he acknowledges 
that he cannot satisfactorily explain his doctrine : " "What a 
rank calumny then is it, he says, to implicate a man who 
has deserved well of the Church of God (i. e. Calvin himself,) 
in the crime of making God the author of sin ? He 
everywhere, indeed, teaches that nothing is done but by the 
will of God; but at the same time he asserts that God 
directs the wicked deeds of men in such a manner by his 

* See Be ceterna Bei Prcedesthmtione, Opera, viii. 595, B. 
f Instit. iii., ch. 23, § 8. J Opera, viii. 126, A. § Ibid., p. 627, B. 



chap, viii.] PREDESTINATION. 263 

secret decree, that tlie latter has nothing analogous to 
human guilt. The sum of his doctrine is, that God in a 
wonderful manner, and by methods unknown to us, governs 
all things to what end he pleases, so that his eternal will is 
the first cause of everything. But why God should will 
what appears to us by no means fit and proper he acknow- 
ledges to be incomprehensible."* His system then, by 
his own admission, was attended with almost as much 
difficulty as that of free will \ which at all events affords an 
outlet from this dilemma. A reasoner as acute, but on this 
point more consistent and intrepid than Calvin, has not 
hesitated to push the doctrine to its legitimate conclusion. 
The philosopher of Malmsbury did not see that it was any 
dishonour to God to say that he was the cause of sin; 
though he held that the absolute power of the Deity made 
it impossible for him to commit sin himself, f Calvin 
endeavoured to avoid this objection to his doctrine by 
allowing man a one-sided liberty ; namely, that of sinning. 
But when Georgius Siculus objected the absurdity of main- 
taining at the same time that man is free to sin, and yet that 
the reprobate sin of necessity, Calvin evaded instead of 
answering the difficulty, which he dismissed in two or three 
short sentences. J 

It is not exactly known at what time Calvin first adopted 
his doctrine of predestination. Bretschneider affirms that 
it was in 1539, when preparing his " Commentary on 
St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans," at Strasburgh \ § but we 

* See Brevis Responsio, &c, Opera, viii. 629, A. 

f " This I know, God cannot sin, because his doing a thing makes it just, and 
consequently no sin ; and because whatsoever can sin, is subject to another's 
law, which God is not. And, therefore, it is blasphemy to say God can sin. 
But to say that God can so order the world as a sin may necessarily be caused 
thereby in a man, I do not see how it is any dishonour to him." — Hobbes, 
On Liberty and Necessity. See Works, v., pp. 116, 117. 

X See Be ceternd Bei Prcedestinatione, Opera, viii. 621, B. 

§ Calvin et V Eglise de Geneve, {Reformations Aim. French translation, 
Geneve, p. 95). 



264 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII- 



have already seen that the doctrine was laid down in the first 
edition of his "Institutes," though not so methodically 
as in the subsequent ones. At all events, however, it does 
not appear that, up to the rather advanced period of his life 
to which our narrative has now brought us, Calvin had 
attempted to enforce his theory with any practical severity. 
In his tract " De Scandalis," published in this very year, 
1551, he had expressed himself with much moderation on 
the subject ; reproving all vain curiosity, and exhorting to 
sobriety of judgment, and to acquiescence in what Scripture 
reveals concerning it, without searching any further.* In 
the preface, too, to his French version of Melancthon's 
"Loci," which, as already mentioned, he published in 1546, 
and of which a second edition appeared in 1551, we find the 
following remarkable passage : " The same with regard to pre- 
destination. Since he (Melancthon) sees at present so many 
light-minded persons who abandon themselves too much to 
curiosity, and observe no moderation in this matter, in order 
to avoid this danger, he has chosen to treat only of what is 
necessary to be known, and to leave the rest as it were 
buried, rather than, by drawing all the conclusions he well 
might have done, to give the reins to many perplexed and 
intricate disputes, which, however, produce no fruit of useful 
instruction. I confess indeed that, whatever be the conse- 
quence, nothing which it has pleased God to reveal to us in 
Scripture, should be suppressed. But he who seeks profitably 
to instruct his readers may well be excused if he stop short at 
what he knows will be most expedient, passing lightly over, 
or leaving entirely behind, that which he does not expect to 
profit." f 

A passage in Calvin's tract "De cetemd Dei Praedestinatione," 
written towards the close of the same year, but after his 
dispute with Bolsec, forms a remarkable contrast with the 
preceding one. He there says : " My Institutes, to cite 

* Calvin, Opera, viii. 75, B. f From the second edition, Geneve, 1551. 



chap. viii. J 



CASE OF BOLSEC. 



265 



nothing else, are sufficient evidence of my sentiments on 
this subject. I would particularly request my readers to 
recollect what I there inculcate : namely, that this is not, as 
some falsely think, a subtle or thorny speculation, calculated 
to weary the mind, without any fruit ; but a weighty argument, 
and excellently adapted to the furthering of piety. For it is 
one which may well build up our faith, teach us humility, 
and excite us to admire and celebrate God's inestimable 
goodness towards us."* 

In a theologian whose consistency has been so much 
vaunted, these variations of opinion are very striking. Can 
it have been that the irritation caused by Bolsec' s opposition 
to his doctrine, led Calvin to assert it with more strictness 
and intolerance than before ? On this point the reader must 
form his own opinion from the history of the case, which I 
shall now proceed to relate. 

It was early in the year 1551, that Hieronymus Hermes 
Bolsec, afterwards known by his biography of Calvin, came to 
Geneva, and established himself as a physician. He was a 
native of Paris, and had at first been a Carmelite monk ; but 
giving vent to some opinions of too free a character respecting 
the Roman Catholic Church, had found it expedient to doff 
the hood and fly to Italy, where he was received and protected 
by the Duchess of Ferrara. Here he married, and adopted 
for a livelihood the profession of medicine : a calling which in 
those days of frequent pestilence, arising from ignorance of 
the saving powers of diet and cleanliness, and when a new 
and terrible disorder had begun to visit Europe, offered one 
of the surest resources against poverty. Beza, in his " Life 
of Calvin," represents Bolsec as having been expelled from 
Ferrara for some deception which he had practised on the 
duchess. That writer, however, subsequently proved a more 

* Calvin, however, introduces two or three sentences into the dedication of 
his tract te Be ceternd Dei Prcedestinatione ; " in order, apparently, to soften down 
the glaring inconsistency between that work and his preface to the " Loci." 



266 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



bitter enemy to Bolsec even than Calvin himself, and his 
testimony must therefore be received with cantion. At all 
events, Bolsec's character stood sufficiently well at the time 
of his first visiting Geneva, where he succeeded in acquiring 
the acquaintance and friendship of some of the leading people. 
He had not long been there when he began to question 
Calvin's doctrine of predestination in the circles which he 
frequented. He could scarcely have committed a more 
unpardonable offence. It came to Calvin's ears. Bolsec 
was sent for, privately admonished, and instructed in that 
profound mystery. These admonitions proved, however, 
unavailing; and for a second offence Bolsec was summoned 
before the consistory and openly reprehended. Calvin has 
given an account of this part of the case in the following 
letter to Christopher Libertet. 

Ci You are much deceived, my dear Christopher, if you think 
that the eternal decrees of God can be so mutilated, as that 
he shall have chosen some to salvation, but destined none to 
destruction. For if he chose some, it surely follows that all 
were not elected : and of these latter what else can be said but 
that they were left to themselves that they might perish ? 
There must therefore be a mutual relation between the elect 
and the reprobate. Jerome Bolsec acknowledges indeed in 
words that a certain number is elected by God, but on being 
urged more closely he is obliged to extend election to all 
mankind. For he openly maintains that grace efficacious to 
salvation is equally offered to all ; and that the cause why some 
receive and others reject it, lies in the free will of those who 
by their own proper motion follow God who calls them. Nor 
does he dissemble that all men are so endowed with free will, 
that the power of obtaining salvation is placed at their disposal. 
In this manner you see that predestination is torn up by the 
roots, and free will set up as, in some degree at least, 
procuring our salvation. But it is something more than 
ridiculous that Jerome, who confesses to free will, should yet 



chap. v»..] calyin's account of bolsec's tenets. 267 



abhor the name of merits. For how can he be deprived of 
merit who is reckoned among the sons of God, because he 
has conformed himself to the grace of adoption which was 
offered to him ? That this was his meaning, or rather that 
he was possessed by such a madness, he had before sufficiently 
shown. He was called before our assembly, when, in spite of 
his cavils, I dragged him from his hiding-place into the light. 
Besides the fifteen ministers, other competent witnesses were 
present ; and all know that if he had a single drop of modesty 
he would have been immediately converted. At first he used 
trifling and puerile cavils ; but being more closely pressed he 
threw aside all shame. Sometimes he denied what he had 
twice or thrice conceded, and then again admitted what he 
had questioned ; he not only vacillated, but sometimes entirely 
abandoned his principles; and kept revolving in the same 
circle without measure or end. Nor could it have been 
otherwise. For unless we confess that those who come to 
Christ are drawn by the Father, and that this is by the 
peculiar operation of the Holy Ghost on the elect ; it follows 
either that all must be promiscuously elected, or that the 
cause of election lies in each man's merit. If it be maintained 
that reprobation begins only with man's second contumacy, 
it follows that God has no certain design, and that his resolu- 
tion as to what he shall do with every individual is suspended. 
Jerome admits that we are all naturally depraved, and holds 
that the grace of God is offered to all to correct the innate 
depravity of our nature. But he feigns that some by their 
own free will admit this correction, so that it may be 
efficacious ; and that others who might have the same liberty, 
by rejecting it, become twice contumacious ; and hence he 
deduces his fictitious reprobation. Who does not see that 
in this manner the eternal decree of God is subjected to the 
will of man ? And yet you imagine that you see I know not 
what elegance in so gross an absurdity ! For my part, if I 
know anything of divinity, I think this a far more stupid and 



26S 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIX. 



[chap. VIII. 



absurd invention than that of the Papists was. If the fruit 
of election be a good and proper will in man, it follows that 
the reprobate are inclined to evil by all the affections of their 
hearts. Nor does Paul (Romans, ix. 16), when he denies 
that it is of him that willeth, attribute a vain and imperfect 
will to the reprobate, but rather teaches that when they who 
were previously averse from all rectitude, begin to have a good 
will, and to walk in the right path, it is owing to the mercy 
of God. Let people therefore cease to place the source and 
first cause of the separation between the elect and the 
reprobate in the human will, if they would leave any room 
for the election of God." * 

At that time, as we have seen, a custom prevailed at 
Geneva somewhat resembling the " Prophesyings," used in 
some parts of England in the reign of Elizabeth. The 
ministers preached by turns at St. Peter's on a Friday ; and 
these sermons were not only open to the criticism of their 
brethren, but even laymen were permitted to step forth and 
propose difficulties or objections. On the 16th of October, 
1551, a numerous congregation was assembled. The 
preacher, John de St. Andre, took his text from John, 
viii. 47: " He that is of God heareth God's words; ye 
therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God : " 
which he explained to mean, that they who are not of God, 
oppose him to the last, because God grants the grace of 
obedience only to his elect. Suddenly Bolsec stepped forth 
from the crowd, and opposed the preacher's views with many 
unbecoming expressions. He entered into an argument to 
show that men are not saved because they are elected, but 
that they are elected because they have faith; and that 
nobody is reprobated by the absolute decree of God, except 
those who, by their own fault, deprive themselves of the 
election offered to all. " How can you believe/' he 
exclaimed, "that God decides the fate of man before his 



* Ep. 135. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



BOLSEC INDICTED. 



269 



birth, consigning some to sin and punishment, others to 
virtue and eternal happiness? It is a false and godless 
notion, introduced by Laurentius Valla, which would ascribe 
the origin of sin and evil to God, as the ancient poets ascribed 
it to Jove. Would you convert a just and eternal Being into 
a thoughtless tyrant, deprive virtue of its excellence, vice of 
its shame, and the wicked of their pangs of conscience ? " * 
Nay, he even quoted the Fathers, and loading the clergy with 
abuse, exhorted the people not to be led astray. 

It has been conjectured that Bolsec was set on by Calvin's 
enemies; and his audacity was probably increased by not 
seeing the head of the Genevese church in his accustomed 
seat. But during his harangue Calvin had entered the 
church unobserved ; and, hidden among the spectators, had 
listened in silence to Bolsec' s attack on his grand doctrine. 
When Bolsec had finished, he pushed through the circle, 
and suddenly presenting himself before the orator, over- 
whelmed him for a long time with arguments supported by 
texts from Scripture, and unpremeditated quotations from 
St. Augustin.f Farel, who chanced to be present, also 
addressed the assembly with fervour. J All seemed ashamed, 
except the monk himself, who stood confounded, indeed, but 
unabashed. With him the most convincing reasoner seems 
to have been the lieutenant of police : which officer, being 
among the audience, apprehended Bolsec for abusing the 
ministers and disturbing the public peace. 

On such an occasion Calvin^ zeal needed no spur. The 
very same afternoon the ministers assembled, and drew up 
seventeen articles against u un Quidam nomme Hierosme;" 
which they presented to the council with a request that he 
should be interrogated concerning them. § In some of these 

* Calvin, Ep. 133. f Beza > ^« Calv. % Ruchat, v. 458. 

§ These articles, together with Bolsec's answers, &c, will be found in 
Trechsel, Antitr., i., Beil. ii., and also in P. Henry, hi., Beil. ii., from a copy in 
the archives of Berne. 



270 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



articles Calvin's doctrine is stated in the driest and nakedest 
terms, and a categorical answer required, in a manner which, 
on a subject at once so awful and so abstruse, appears most 
repulsive. The following two or three will serve by way 
of specimen of the spiritual tyranny exercised by Calvin. 
Bolsec's answers, which are subjoined, seem to breathe a 
more humble and christian spirit. 

"Article x. — Item, If he does not believe that God, before 
he saw any difference between men, elected some and 
rejected others? 

Answer. — I reply that we should not say that God has 
a foreknowledge of one thing more than of another, for in 
him is neither present nor future, but all things are present 
to him at once. I therefore say, that he sees at one view 
the difference between the faithful and the unfaithful, and 
the election of one, and reprobation of the other. 

Article xi. — Item, If it does not proceed from an 
admirable design of God, the first cause of which is un- 
known to us, that some are led, and others not ? 

Answer. — I reply that I do not wish to enter into this 
admirable and secret design of God ; and that it suffices me 
to confine myself to his simple word, which tells us that 
they who believe in his Son shall be saved, whilst the 
faithless shall be condemned; and that he has sent his 
Son into the world in order that all might believe in him. 
Wherefore, observing that Scripture leads us no further, it 
might suffice to stop there, without proceeding to puzzle the 
understanding of the simple. 

Article xii. — Item, That when the gospel is preached, 
whether the cause why some believe, and others not, be 
not, that God calls efficaciously those whom he has pre- 
destined to salvation ? 

Answer. — I reply that I do not conceive that God has 
predestined to save some rather than others, but that he 
has predestined to save those who believe through his 



CHAP, till.] 



BOLSEC INDICTED. 



271 



efficacious grace; and that in others who reject the faith, 
the grace of God, which produces faith, is not efficacious 
because they do not value and esteem it as they ought ; so 
that their sin in not believing proceeds from their contempt 
and rebellion, and not from the decree of God." 

These questions show that Calvin, in spite of the discretion 
which he sometimes thought fit to recommend on this sub- 
ject, would not only himself know the cause, and be in the 
secret of all God's designs, but even make others subscribe 
implicitly to his opinions. Yet in his own case, when he 
appeared before the synod of Lausanne in 1539, he positively 
refused to subscribe the three ancient creeds of the Church, 
when required to do so at the instance of Caroli, although he 
professed to believe in them ; and this solely on the ground that 
he would not sanction the introduction of such a tyranny 
into the Church as should permit one person to compel 
another to declare his faith.* So dangerous is the possession 
of absolute authority ! and so apt are the sentiments of the 
wisest and most consistent men to be swayed by the circum- 
stances in which they may happen to be placed. 

Bolsec, in his turn, proposed several questions to Calvin, 
to which he required him to answer categorically, " without 
human reasons and vain similitudes, but simply according to 
the word of God." The style of these questions, some of 
which are very pertinent, must doubtless have proved highly 
offensive to Calvin, so long accustomed to domineer without 
opposition in such matters. " These questions," says 
Dr. Henry, " which possess something attractive for all ages, 
inasmuch as they represent the views of a sound and 
natural feeling, but with which the church (i. e. Calvin), being 
compelled to go further in order to repress Pelagianism, 
could not agree, laid apparently the ground for Calvin's 
work on election, which appeared shortly afterwards." f 

As, in his answer to Calvin's fifth interrogatory, Bolsec had 



* See above, chap, ii., p. 70. 



f Leben Calvins, iii. 52. 



272 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vin. 



asserted that his opinions were shared, among others, by 
Melancthon, Bullinger, and Brenz, the consistory requested 
the council not to pass any judgment on his case, till the 
Swiss churches had been consulted. The council accordingly 
wrote to those of Zurich, Berne, and Basle, sending them a 
list of Bolsec's errors, and requesting their advice as to how 
they should proceed with him. The errors imputed to him 
were the following five : — 

1. That faith depends not on election, but that election 
proceeds from faith. 

2. That nobody remains in his blindness from the corrup- 
tion of his nature, since all have the requisite enlightenment 
from God ; and that it is an insult towards God to say that 
he abandons some to their blindness, because it is his 
pleasure to do so. 

3. That God leads to himself all rational creatures, and 
that, at first, he abandons none, but only those who have often 
resisted him. 

4. That the making of a heart of stone into a heart of 
flesh, means only, that God gives us a heart capable of under- 
standing ; but that this grace is universal, and that some are 
not more predestinated to salvation than others. 

5. That when St. Paul says (Ephes. i. 5,) that God has 
elected us through Jesus Christ, this does not regard election 
to salvation, but the election of disciples, and of St. Paul 
himself to the office of an Apostle.* 

With regard to this last point, Calvin observes in a letter 
to the ministers of Basle. " When I objected to him that in 
that case the Apostles alone would be capable of gratuitous 
election, they alone reconciled with God, they alone presented 
with the remission of their sins, he was so far from being 
touched that he heard these thunders with a dog's grin.^f 

Besides this letter of the council's, a circular was also 
addressed to the same churches by Calvin and his colleagues, 



Ruchat, v. 459. 



+ Ep. 134. 



chap, via.] THE SWISS CHUKCHES CONSULTED. 



273 



which has been already quoted, for the account of Bolsec's 
behaviour during the dispute at St. Peter's.* It speaks in 
the most offensive and contemptuous terms of Bolsec, who, 
at that time at least, does not seem to have deserved the 
imputations cast upon him. He was well received in the 
Genevese circles, and was, in particular, patronised by M. de 
Fallais, and his wife, Mad. de Brederode, persons of nobility 
and distinction, who had left their country for the sake of 
religion, and who were at that time actually living in Calvin's 
house, at his own pressing solicitation. But as Ruchat 
remarks, "Calvin was, as everybody knows, a great zealot 
for the doctrine of predestination and election. He frequently 
preached it with warmth, regarded it almost as the basis 
and foundation of religion, and treated those who rejected 
it without ceremony, as scoundrels, rogues, and worthless 
fellows." f 

The circular in question begins as follows : " We have 
here a certain Jerome, who, having laid aside the monk's 
hood, is become one of those doctors of the market-place 
who, by means of cheating and deception, acquire such a 
degree of impudence, that they are fit and willing to venture 
upon anything." Then, after detailing Bolsec' s case, as 
already related, the letter proceeds : " As he boasted that 
there were many ministers in other churches who shared in 
his views, we begged our council not to pronounce its 
judgment till it should receive the answer of your church, 
and thus learn that the scoundrel wickedly and abusively 
pleaded your suffrage. At first he was ashamed to decline 
this appeal to the churches; but he carped at it, on the 
ground that your familiarity with our brother Calvin would 
justly render you liable to suspicion. The council, however, 
acceded to our request, and resolved that you should be 
consulted. Bolsec, moreover, dragged your church into the 
affair. For, whilst he particularly condemned Zwingli, he 



Ep. 133. 



+ Reformation de la Suisse, v. 456. 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



falsely affirmed that Bullinger was of his own opinion. In 
the Bernese ministers he also slily songht a handle for 
discord. It is our wish that our Church should be purged 
from this pest in such a manner that it may not, by being 
driven thence, become injurious to our neighbours" 

What conld this last sentence mean ? The church of 
Geneva was to be delivered from the pest, which was not, 
however, to be driven thence. The problem how this could 
be accomplished admits but of two solutions : perpetual 
imprisonment, or death. At that time, however, the former 
punishment was but little customary. A short poem, com- 
posed by Bolsec whilst in prison, evidently shows that he 
considered his life in danger. In the course of it the 
following lines occur : — 

" En prison suis comme meurtrier inique, 
Comme mechant qui a tout mal s' applique ; 
Priv6 de biens et d'amis je demeure, 
Ou va criant, — Totte, tolle, quHl meure." 

In the course of these doggrels he naturally enough expresses 
astonishment that he should be subjected to these perse- 
cutions at Geneva, the fountain-head of religious liberty : — 

" En mes travaux Tentendement s'eleve, 
Considerant que je suis en Geneve, 
Qui a chasse les abuseurs Papistes, 
Sorbonniqueurs, et tels autres sophistes ; 
Et toutefois pour la parole pure 
De Jesus Christ en Geneve j'endure ! " 

He concludes, however, with expressions of constancy and 
reliance upon God : — - 

" Sus done, mon coeur, reprens vigueur et force, 
Chasse douleurs, et de chanter t'efforce — 
Louange a Dieu ! qui pour ton salut veille ; 
II est pour toi, quelque mal qu'on le veuille, 
Chasse les pleurs, jette douleur amere, 
Pour louer Dieu, pour invoquer ton pere ! "* 



* The poem will be found at length in P. Henry, iii., Beil. 2. 



chap, vni.] BOLSEC ? S LIFE IN DANGER. 



275 



A passage in the answer of the Bernese council to that of 
Geneva shows that they also suspected Calvin of desiring to 
push the proceedings against Bolsec to the extent of capital 
punishment : for they strongly deprecate such a course on 
the ground of its impolicy, as being calculated to stimulate 
the persecution of the Protestants in France and other 
parts.* That such a suspicion should have been entertained 
shows that a strong opinion must have been already formed 
respecting Calvin's intolerance ; for as yet there was nothing 
in his published works which tended to justify the capital 
punishment of real or pretended heretics, but the contrary. 
The immediate cause of the suspicion of the Bernese was, 
doubtless, however, the passage just alluded to in the Genevese 
letter. 

Calvin himself denied, in his preface to the Consensus 
Pastorum, as well as in a private letter to Bullinger, that he 
had harboured any such design, and affirmed that the rumour 
of it was a malicious invention of his enemies. f If we are 
to take him at his word, we can only fall back on the other 
alternative, and assume that the meaning of his ambiguous 
phrase was imprisonment for life : a tolerably hard punish- 
ment for presuming to differ with him on so abstruse a point. 
As he considered most of his opponents to be reprobates, 
it may be that his rigid doctrine of predestination caused 
him to treat them with the more severity : for why should 
he spare a man whom God had condemned from all eternity ? 
In the present instance, however, he may have been 
determined to a milder course, by the nature of the replies 
from the Swiss churches, which we shall now consider. 

These replies were very unsatisfactory to Calvin. It is 

* " Car certes si le dit Hieronyme dut souffrir a cause de son erreur punition 
de corps ou de vie, est a craindre que non seulement en ce pays, mais aussi en 
France et ailleurs Ton en prendra grand regret et occasion de plus grande 
malevolonte contre vous et les votres, aussi contre tous ceux de la religion 
evangelique."— See P. Henry^iii. 56, note. 

f Calvin to Bullinger, Jan. 21st, 1552 (MS. Tig., Ibid.) 
T 2 



276 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII, 



true that the verdict was, on the whole, in his favour ; but 
the terms in which it was expressed were both vague and 
moderate ; and the most material point of the controversy — 
reprobation — was evaded. The reply of the Basle ministers 
was very short. They expressed a desire not to penetrate 
too deeply into the mystery, but to leave it in the hands of 
God.* The answer of Bullinger and the Zurich ministers 
was particularly annoying to Calvin. In their public letter 
to the council of Geneva, they referred to what had been 
said on the subject in question in the Consensus agreed upon 
between themselves and the Genevese church in 1549, as 
embracing all that was necessary for the pious. The main 
point at issue — absolute and eternal reprobation — was passed 
over in silence : nay, they even seemed to attribute some- 
thing to the wilLf In this letter the Zurich ministers 
defend Zwingli, the great founder of their church, from an 
imputation cast upon him by Bolsec, to the effect that he 
held that men were driven by necessity, and therefore 
compelled by God, to sin. They admit, indeed, that some- 
thing of this sort might be inferred from his book on the 
Providence of God ; but they refer to other both earlier and 
later works of his, in which sin is ascribed to the corruption 
of the human will. 

If Calvin disliked this public letter of the Zurich ministers, 
a private one that Bullinger addressed to him was still more 
unacceptable. In this Bullinger strongly impressed upon 
him the necessity for mildness and moderation. "Believe 
me," said he, u many are displeased at what you say in your 
Institutes about election, and draw the same conclusions from 
it as Bolsec has done from Zwinglr's book on Providence \" 
adding, " According to the sentiments of the Apostles, God 
wills the happiness of all mankind." J 

Calvin expressed the displeasure which he felt at the 

* Their letter will be found in P. Henry, iii. 52. 
f See their letter, Dec. 1st, 1551 (MS. Tig., Ibid., Beil. 2). J iHd., p. 55. 



chap, viii.] bullinger's advice to calyin. 



277 



opinion of Bullinger and the Zurich clergy in a letter to 
Farel (Jan. 27th, 1552), in which he says: "Your letter, 
in which you requested me to swallow in silence the injury 
done me by my neighbours, came too late. With respect 
to the Zurichers the die had been cast three days before; 
and, though the remedy was in my power, I did not choose 
to recall the letter which had been sent. I was compelled 
afterwards to write to those of Basle,* with whose empty and 
frigid answer I was at first not a little offended: but 
those which afterwards arrived from others contained such 
indignities as easily reconciled me with it. You are much 
deceived in thinking that the Zurichers will hereafter see 
their fault spontaneously. Expect rather that they will 
deny the election of God altogether. It was a wonderful 
providence that, without having such a design, I so bound 
them by the terms of our Consensus, that they are at least 
deprived of the power to hurt us ; for I have been told by a 
certain person that, otherwise, they would now be Bolsec's 
patrons."f This affair caused a misunderstanding and 
coldness for some time between Calvin and Bullinger. J 

But of all the letters written on this occasion that of the 
ministers of Berne is the most remarkable for its mild and 
tolerant spirit ; which is so strongly impressed upon it, 
that it would almost seem to be the production of a later 
age. After applauding the zeal for unity displayed by the 
Genevese ministers, those of Berne proceeded to say : " Sfall 
we feel that the greatest care should be taken not to treat 
the erring too severely, lest by immoderately vindicating 
purity of doctrine we desert the rule of Christ's spirit, and 
transgress that brotherly charity by which we are reckoned 
his disciples. Truth is dear to Christ : granted, but so also 
are the lives of his sheep ; not only of those which walk in 
the truth without offence, but also of those which go astray : 
nay, according to the gospel parable, the good Shepherd hath 



* See Ep. 134. 



f P. Henry, iii., Beil. 22. 



Trechsel, i. 188. 



278 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



even a greater care of the latter. This you know yourselves ; 
we are not teaching the ignorant, but admonishing the wise. 
Most of us are so constituted that in this sort of controversies 
it usually happens that in our zeal to defend the truth of 
the christian doctrine we neglect what is required of us by 
a spirit of charity and christian gentleness, and are carried 
away by our fervour, and our desire of upholding the 
truth, into a conduct unbecoming the disciples of Christ. 
As if, forsooth, the love of charity were incompatible with 
a zealous maintenance of the truth ! when in fact the union 
of both proceeds from the most genuine christian spirit : 
than which, as nothing is more averse from falsehood, so 
nothing is more given to meekness and charity. We approve 
your desire of upholding the true doctrine, and we pray God 
that as he hath sanctified you in his truth, so he will preserve 
you in it to the end, against the prince of all falsehood, 
to your own good, and that of many others. At the same 
time we beseech you to reflect how prone the human 
understanding is to error ; and on the other hand how noble, 
and therefore how much easier it is, to win a man back by 
gentleness than to compel him by severity. As to the 
particular cause of the dispute between yourselves and 
Jerome, you cannot be ignorant of the perplexity it has 
occasioned to many good men, and of whom, in other 
respects, we cannot think so ill : who, when they read those 
texts of holy Scripture which proclaim the universal grace 
of God, want judgment rightly to perceive and acknowledge 
the awful mysteries of divine election and predestination ; 
but cling to the announcement of God's universal grace and 
goodness, and think it cannot be said of him that he 
reprobates, blinds, and hardens any man, without at the 
same time saying, with a blasphemous inference, that he is the 
author of human blindness and perdition, and consequently, 
of all the sins that are committed. - " 

Then, after quoting several texts in favour of universal 



chap, viii.] LETTER OF THE BERNESE MINISTERS. 



279 



grace, the Bernese ministers proceed : " Many, by no 
means bad men, so adhere to these texts, that they are 
unable to look with the pure eyes of faith on the cause of 
divine predestination; concerning which some have not 
idly admonished that we should speak the more cautiously 
and circumspectly, because it is not milk for babes, but 
food for men. And so this Jerome clearly shows that he 
belongs to this weaker sort, inasmuch as he refuses to enter 
upon this secret counsel of God. These things we mention, 
not as alien from your own conscience, but, as you have 
asked our opinion, that we may, like faithful servants of 
God, notify that which in our judgment may best serve 
both to the peace and edification of your church, and lead 
the mind of Jerome himself to a spirit of peace. He is 
altogether unknown to us, but some say that he is not so bad 
a man/'* &c. 

This letter betrays the good sense and moderation which 
characterised the ministers of Berne. It was, indeed, as 
Dr. Henry observes, a strong lecture for Calvin; but it was 
one from which he needed not to have been ashamed to 
profit, for it breathes the genuine spirit of the gospel. The 
whole of this correspondence leaves the impression that 
Calvin had quite miscalculated his position. It revealed to 
him that Melancthon and the Lutheran church were not his 
only opponents on the doctrine in question ; but that all the 
Reformed churches of Switzerland disapproved of the lengths 
to which he pushed it. He found that he stood almost by 
himself, and hence the angry and disappointed tone of his 
letter to Farel. The effect of the Swiss letters was a milder 
judgment on Bolsec. He was sentenced to banishment for 
life, under pain of being whipped if ever he should be found 
within the city of Geneva or its territory.t Hereupon he 
retired to Thonon. 

This affair excited considerable discussion in the religious 

* MS. Bern., apud P. Henry, iii., Beil. 17, et seq. f Beza, Vita Calv. 



280 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



circles. Bolsec's cause was warmly espoused by M. de Fallais, 
who, as it has been said, was at that time dwelling with 
Calvin ; but who was so disgusted with his conduct on this 
occasion, that he renounced his friendship, and quitted 
Geneva. 

Jacques de Bourgogne, sieur de Fallais and Bredam, was 
descended from the Dukes of Burgundy; whilst his wife, 
Jolande de Brederode, traced her pedigree from the old 
Counts of Holland. Between Calvin and this couple a 
correspondence had been kept up from 1545 to 1548, 
which exhibits Calvin in his unbent hours in a pleasanter 
light than might have been anticipated, and presents a 
favourable specimen of his French style.* He had long 
pressed M. de Fallais to come to Geneva; but even the 
temptation of a cask of old wine, which he had laid in 
expressly, and which he represented as difficult to be replaced,f 
failed at first to tempt that nobleman. M. de Fallais 
seems to have felt, as Dr. Henry remarks, { that Calvin was 
one of those great men whom it is best to know at a certain 
distance; and, therefore, when he left his country for 
the sake of religion, he at first betook himself to Basle 
in preference to Geneva. In that town, formerly the 
residence of Erasmus, as it was then of Castellio, a more 
elegant and liberal tone prevailed in society, nor were its 
clergy so ascetic and precise as those of Geneva. After 
much pressing, however, M. de Fallais at length came to 
Geneva, and took up his abode with Calvin whilst the 
latter' s wife was still alive. His residence at Basle had not 
prepared him for the acerbity of Calvin's theology ; and it 
was with surprise that he beheld the bitterness and morosity 
of the modern Augustin. He embraced the side of his 
physician, in whose views he subsequently declared his 
concurrence ; and not only left Geneva on the banishment 



* They were published at Amsterdam in a separate volume, 1774. 
f Lettre xlv. J Vol. iii., p. 65. 



chap, viii.] M. DE FALLAIS PATRONISES BOLSEC. 281 



of Bolsec, but used all his influence with the Bernese to 
induce them to protect him. In this he succeeded, notwith- 
standing Calvin's efforts to prevent it, whose anger still 
pursued its victim. Thus writing to Fabri, in December, 
1551, Calvin says : " It is of the greatest importance that that 
knave should not be harboured in the Bernese territories. 
I am so ashamed of De Fallais, that I cannot bear the sight 
of those who reproach me with his levity/'* And in the 
letter to the clergy of Basle before referred to, he observes: 
" Let De Fallais write what he will about his (Bolsec's) not 
being a bad man, and prostitute his good name to ridicule 
in favour of an obscure scoundrel, it will soon appear, and 
with more detriment to the church than I could wish, 
how pernicious a pest he has been."f He attributed that 
nobleman's affection for Bolsec to a sort of fascination, 
arising from a cure which Bolsec had performed on one of 
his maid servants, for a cancer. J Turretin, too, affirms that 
the interest which M. de Fallais took in the matter arose 
from his fear of losing Bolsec's services ; and mentions that 
he had written to the Swiss churches in his favour, with the 
view of influencing their verdict. § But these are partial 
testimonies, and it is quite as likely that M. de Fallais 
was incited by a dislike of Calvin's doctrine, to which his 
residence at Basle would naturally have contributed. 

It is singular, however, that Bolsec himself, in the "Life 
of Calvin " which he afterwards published, does not mention 
that his patron's quarrel with that Reformer arose upon any 
point of doctrine, nor from any regard that he felt for 
himself, or value for his services as a physician ; but makes 
it the occasion of bringing a charge of a flagrant nature against 
Calvin. He affirms that the real cause of M. de Fallais' 
leaving Geneva was, that Calvin had solicited the chastity of 

* MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 67, note, 
f Ep. 134. % Letter to Bullinger, apud P. Henry, iii. 67, note. 

§ See Bibl. Germ., t. xiii. 



282 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



his wife, who thereupon requested her husband to remove 
to Berne; and he asserts that he had frequently heard 
Madame de Brederode state this in the presence of her 
husband.* But this charge does not rest on any other 
authority than Bolsec' s, which must not be lightly taken; 
for it is certain that one of a still more infamous nature 
which he brings against Calvin is a gratuitous calumny. 
Nevertheless, it seems at least probable that such a report 
was in circulation at that time ; since, from an entry in the 
diary of Haller, one of the Bernese ministers, we learn that 
Calvin appeared before the council of that city on the 17th 
of February, 1552, for the purpose of clearing himself from 
certain calumnies. f 

No provocation can excuse Bolsec for bringing these 
infamous charges ; yet he was probably incited by Beza's 
"Life of Calvin" to insert them in his own biography of 
Calvin. In the work alluded to, Beza charges Bolsec, after 
he had returned to the Roman Catholic communion, with 
prostituting his wife to the canons of Autun ; an imputation, 
the truth of which is liable to considerable suspicion, from the 
virulence displayed by Beza in persecuting Bolsec, and from 
the fact that that writer, and even Calvin himself, were not 
always very scrupulous in ascertaining the truth of what 
they alleged against their adversaries. It is certain that 
Beza's "Life of Calvin" appeared before Bolsec' s, which 
was not published till many years after Calvin's death. 

The breach between Calvin and M. de Fallais was never 
healed; though the latter did not, as Bayle affirms (art. 
Philippe de Bourgogne), abandon the Protestant communion. 
Calvin had not only written for him an " Apology" to be laid 
before the Emperor of Germany, in which De Fallais assigns 
the motives of his conversion to Protestantism, but had also 

* Vie de Calvin, p. 24, Paris, 1557- 
+ "Calvin came hither, and purged himself before our council from the 
calumnies of certain individuals."— Ephem., 17 Fevrier, 1552 (Mus. Helv., ii. 99). 



chap, vm.] calvin's teact on PKEDESTINATION. 283 



dedicated to him his " Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to 
the Corinthians." In the second edition of this work, 
however, Calvin cancelled this dedication, and substituted 
one to Carraccioli, Marquis of Vico. 

In consequence of this dispute with Bolsec, Calvin drew up 
his tract " On the Eternal Predestination of God ; " which, 
under the name of a Consensus or Agreement of the 
Genevese Pastors, he dedicated to the syndics and council 
of Geneva, on the 1st of January, 1552. The name of 
Bolsec, however — whom Calvin parallels with the burner of 
Diana's temple at Ephesus — is passed over in silence; and 
he is designated as " too insipid an animal" to be the subject 
of a regular treatise. Instead of him Calvin adopts "the 
dead dog " Pighius as his opponent ; and seizes the oppor- 
tunity to complete the work which he had formerly begun 
against him. It is also made the vehicle for an answer to a 
certain Georgius Siculus, a Benedictine ; an enthusiast who 
pretended that Christ had appeared to him, and appointed 
him an interpreter of Scripture.* 

In the course of the year 1552 Calvin was in correspondence 
with Cranmer. His interference in English affairs began a 
little earlier, and it was soon after the death of Henry VIII. 
that he first manifested any direct interest in the spiritual 
affairs of England, by addressing a long letter to the 
Protector Somerset, dated on the 22nd of October, 1548.f 
In this Calvin confines himself to points of discipline and 
church government. He adverts to two factions by which 
the church of England was distracted ; the Papists, and the 
fantastic Gospellers, or Anabaptists. He particularly calls 
the attention of the Protector to three points : first, the 
method of instructing the people ; second, the extirpation of 
old abuses ; and third, the repression and punishment of 
vice. With regard to the first, he particularly insists on the 

* Calvin, Opera, viii. 594, B. 
+ It will be found in the original French in P. Henry, ii., Beil. 4. It forms 
Ep. 87 of Calvin's Latin correspondence. 



284 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



necessity of lively preaching. (( I say this, Sire/' he observes, 
"because it seems to me that there is little of such preaching 
in the kingdom, but that sermons are for the most part only 
read." He admits, however, that this was a necessity arising 
from the scarcity of fit and proper ministers ; a want, as our 
ecclesiastical annals show, felt for many years after this period, 
owing to the great majority of men bred at the universities 
being inclined to the old religion. Calvin's hint seems not 
to have been wholly flung away. In the following year 
Knox was appointed by the council to preach at Berwick ; * 
and afterwards we find him one of King Edward's six itinerant 
chaplains, who were employed to propagate Reformed tenets 
through the country by preaching. Under this head of 
instruction Calvin also recommends, as a means to repress 
Anabaptists and other visionaries, that some code of doctrine 
should be drawn up, to be sworn to by the clergy, and that 
a catechism for children should be prepared. Both these 
suggestions were afterwards adopted, though it is probable 
they would have occurred to Cranmer without any hint from 
Geneva. 

With regard to the second head, namely, the extirpation 
of old abuses, Calvin acknowledges the importance of pro- 
ceeding with moderation, but maintains that this should not 
be carried to such a length as to operate to the prejudice of 
religion. The retained abuses which he objected to were 
prayers for the dead, anointing [crime), and extreme unction. 

Under the third head, the repression and punishment of 
vice, he advises ecclesiastical penalties against adultery, 
drunkenness, blasphemy, and other vices which do not fall 
so immediately under the cognizance of civil laws. He 
would have introduced the same discipline which he had 
established at Geneva, and have maintained it by the same 
means, namely, excommunication, or exclusion from the 
communion. He does not, however, drop a hint respecting 



* Strype, Memorials, iii. 



chap, viii.] CALVIN AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 



285 



the establishment of a consistory, but seems to recognise the 
episcopal form of government, and the power of the Protector, 
as head of the Church, by virtue of his representing the 
king ; though he had objected to that function in the person 
of Henry VIII * 

This letter contains a remarkable passage in which Calvin 
recommends the Protector to repress the mutinous Papists and 
Anabaptists by the sword. It will be recollected that in the 
following year a commission issued for trying Anabaptists, 
under which Joan Bocher, or Joan of Kent, was burned. 
Can it be that the mind of the English primate was fortified 
in this course by the advice and opinion of so great a 
theologian as Calvin, even so as to resist the tears and 
supplications of the young king, and to light up the first fire 
of persecution in a Reformed community ? f 

After this Calvin's intercourse with England seems to have 
been intermitted for a year or two. From a letter of his to 
Farel, dated on the 15th of June, 1551, it appears that his 
communications were renewed with the English court in 
that year, and that Cranmer had assured him he could not 
be more usefully employed than in writing frequently to the 
young king. J The renewal of the correspondence at this 
period was occasioned by Calvin's having dedicated to 
Edward VI. his " Commentary on Isaiah and the Canonical 
Epistles/' as he mentions in a letter to Bullinger in the 

* " Car comme la doctrine est Tame de l'Eglise pour la vivifier, ainsi la 
discipline et correction des vices sont comme les nerfs pour maintenir le corps 
en son etat et vigueur. L'office des Eveques et cure's est de veiller sur cela, 
afin que la cene de nostre Seigneur ne soit point polluee par gens de vie 
scandaleuse ; mais en l'authorite ou Dieu vous a mis la principale charge 
revient sur vous, voyre de mettre les aultres en train, afin que chacun s'acquitte 
de son debvoir, et faire que l'ordre qui aura este' estably soit deuement observe." 

f The passage runs as follows : " Tous ensemble me'ritent bien d'estre 
reprimes par le glayve qui vous est commis, veu qu'ils s'attachent non 
seulement au Roi, mais a Dieu qui l'a assie au siege royal, et vous a commis 
la protection tant de sa personne comme de sa majeste." — See P. Henry, ii., 
Beil. 30. J* X See Ep. 123. 



286 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



month of March in that year;* adding that he had accom- 
panied the books with some private letters of exhortation. 
It appears from the letter to Farel before referred to that 
Calvin had sent one Nicholas, probably Nicholas de la 
Fontaine, into England with these books and letters, who 
had nearly suffered shipwreck on his passage homewards. 
On Calvin's messenger delivering his letters to the Duke of 
Somerset, and mentioning that he had others for the king, 
the Protector himself undertook to introduce him to Edward, 
who, as well as his council, showed much joy on receiving 
them. At this time the affair of Dr. Hooper, who had been 
appointed to the see of Gloucester in 1550, was occupying 
the attention of the English church. Hooper had left 
England towards the end of Henry's reign, and at the time 
of the promulgation of the Interim was residing at Zurich, 
where he seems to have imbibed his aversion to the surplice, 
and other canonical habits. In the reforms introduced by 
Cranmer in 1548, the subject of the priestly garments was 
long under discussion. Some objected to them as remnants 
of superstition ; but on the other hand it was contended 
that the priests, under the Mosaic dispensation, wore white 
garments; that they were used in the African churches 
during the fourth century ; that they seemed a natural emblem 
of the purity which became the priestly office; and that 
many of the English clergy were so poor that they were 
unable to provide themselves with decent clothing, and 
would thus become objects of contempt and ridicule to the 
people if they officiated in the pulpit without the surplice.f 
These arguments had prevailed ; but Hooper, on his appoint- 
ment, refused to be consecrated, objecting to the oath, which 
contained the words " by God, by Saints, and by the Holy 
Ghost," and to what he called the Aaronical habits. £ The 

* Ep. 120. Calvin's letter to the king, accompanying the Commentaries, is 
printed by the Parker Society, (Original Letters, P. ii., p. 707). 
+■ Burnet, Reformation, ii. 155. % Ibid., iii. 389. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



AFFAIE OF DK. HOOPEK. 



287 



first of these objections was got over by the young king 
striking out the objectionable words with his own hand. 
About the habits there was more difficulty. The king and 
council seemed inclined to abolish them j but Ridley and the 
other bishops were for retaining them, holding them to be 
things indifferent, which ought to be complied with. In a 
subsequent discussion Cranmer showed a disposition to yield ; 
but Ridley and Goodrick stood out. The primate, distrusting 
his own judgment, wrote to Bucer for his opinion, who was 
then professor of divinity at Cambridge.* Bucer answered 
that the habits might be used without offence to God, and 
that those who opposed and rejected them on the ground 
of their unlawfulness were at least in error : but he at the 
same time expressed a wish that they should be abolished, 
as affording to some an occasion of superstition, and to others 
of bickering and contention. He also wrote to Hooper 
himself to the like effect. Peter Martyr wrote to Bucer to 
express his concurrence in his view of the question, and his 
dissatisfaction at Hooper's scruples ; which, he thought, 
were calculated to create disturbance, and injure the cause 
of the Reformation.t But however obstinate and unreason- 
able was Hooper's conduct that of the council was hardly 
less so. They would not permit him to decline the 
bishopric, a step which would at once have put an end to 
the matter ; but during the controversy confined him to his 
house. The affair was at length compromised, and Hooper 
was consecrated in March, 1551, on the following conditions : 
that he should consent to wear the robes at his consecration, 
and when he preached before the king or in his cathedral ; 
but that at other times he should be at liberty to dispense 
with them. This was the first appearance in England of 
those unhappy differences which afterwards prevailed between 
the Church and the Puritanical party. 



* Cranmer's letter is dated December 2nd, 1550. See Cranmer 's Remains, i. 
341, and note. f Burnet, ii. 31 7. 



288 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. VIII. 



Calvin himself thought that Hooper carried his scruples 
too far. In his letter to Bullinger he says : " I have received 
the sad news that Hooper has been imprisoned ; an event of 
which I had some apprehensions previously. I fear that 
the bishops will grow more rampant on this victory, and 
therefore, though I approve of his constancy in refusing to 
be anointed, yet I should have preferred that he had not 
contended so pertinaciously respecting the cap and surplice, 
(although I do not approve of them), and so I lately endea- 
voured to persuade him."* Calvin, in his letter to the Duke 
of Somerset, had recommended Hooper to his protection.f 
This recommendation seems not to have been neglected. 
In the following October Hooper, on the deprivation of 
Heath, was appointed to the see of Worcester, which he held 
in commendam ; and in the following spring, during the 
meeting of the parliament, we find him residing in the 
primate's palace, on a footing of the greatest friendship. J 

In the letter to Earel before referred to, § Calvin adverts 
to the interception of the ecclesiastical revenues by the 
nobility as one of the most crying evils in the English 
church, but for which there was no remedy till the king 
should come of age. Meanwhile they hired improper persons 
at a low price to discharge the office of the ministers, or 
rather to fill their places. In the same letter he alludes to 
the death of Bucer, which had happened a little previously. 
This he considered a great loss to the Church in general, and 
particularly to that of England. 

When the death of Henry had left Cranmer some liberty 
of action, one of the designs which lay nearest his heart was 
the uniting of all the Protestant churches into one common 
confession of faith. || Many years previously a union had 
indeed been attempted with the Lutherans ; and from a 

* Ep. 120. t Ep. 121. 

X See Cranmer's letter to Bullinger, March 20th, 1552 {Cranmer 's 
Remains, i. 345, and note). § Ep. 123. , || See Strype, Cranmer^. 407. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



cranmeb's principles. 



289 



letter of Melancthon's to Camerarius, dated on the 13th of 
September, 1534, we find that he had then already received 
two invitations to come to England.* But during the reign 
of Henry the question of the eucharist would have prevented 
any nnion with the Swiss churches, and indeed with the 
Lutheran : for that monarch appears never to have discarded 
the doctrine of tran substantiation ; and in his negotiations 
with the Germans, he gave them plainly to understand that 
he expected they should submit to him, and not he to them.f 
The opinions of the primate on that question it is not easy to 
arrive at. During the life of Henry he seems to have 
inclined to the popish doctrine; and yet there are circum- 
stances which favour the notion of his having been a 
Lutheran. The " Institution of a Christian Man," published 
in 1537, in the drawing up of which Cranmer had the 
principal hand, is altogether Roman Catholic, except on 
points relating to the power of the see of Rome. In the same 
year we find him writing to Vadianus, or Wat, a minister 
of St. Gal, in Switzerland, to express his disapprobation of 
a book which Wat had written against transubstantiation. { 
In a letter, however, which he addressed to Cromwell in 
1538, we find the following passage : — "As concerning Adam 
Damplip of Calice, he utterly denieth that ever he taught or 
said that the very body and blood of Christ was not presently 
in the sacrament of the altar, and confesseth the same to be 
there really ; but he saith that the controversy between him 
and the prior was by cause he confuted the opinion of the 
transubstantiation, and therein I think he taught but the 
truth." § Now, at this time, if he maintained the local 
presence, yet denied transubstantiation, he must have been a 
Lutheran. In the formulary, entitled "A Necessary Doctrine 

* See Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 151, note, 
t See Cromwell's letter to the divines of Wittenberg, and the king's answer to 
the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse. Burnet, iii. 214, and Rec4,No. 45. 
J Cranmer 's Remains, i. 195, § Ibid., i. 257. 

U 



290 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



and Erudition for any Christian Man," published in 1543, it 
is hard to say whether the Lutheran or Roman Catholic 
doctrine be maintained. The exact date of Cranmer' s con- 
version to the tenets held by the Swiss churches on this 
subject cannot be ascertained. Mr. Le Bas places it about 
the year 1547 ; * but if that was so, Cranmer, at all events, 
kept it secret till the end of 1548. On the 31st of December 
of that year, we find Bartholomew Traheron writing to 
Bullinger as follows : — " On the 14th of December, if I 
mistake not, a disputation was held at London concerning 
the eucharist, in the presence of almost all the nobility of 
England. The argument was sharply contested by the 
bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury, contrary to general 
expectation, most openly, firmly, and learnedly, maintained 
your opinion upon this subject." And a little further on he 
adds : " I perceive that it is all over with Lutheranism, now 
that those who were considered its principal, and almost 
only supporters, have altogether come over to our side." f 

After his conversion on this point, Cranmer, who had 
hitherto contemplated a union only with the Lutheran 
church, naturally began to turn his attention to those of 
Switzerland. "We find him, indeed, addressing a letter of 
invitation to Melancthon, on the 10th of February, 1549 ; 
but that Reformer very nearly coincided with the Swiss 
respecting the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, nor did 
Cranmer wish to exclude the Lutherans from a union 
intended to be general. It was early in the year 1552, and 
consequently after Calvin's dispute with Bolsec, and the 
publication of his book on predestination, that we first 
find Cranmer including the church of Geneva in his project. 
It may be that before that period Calvin was not sufficiently 
known in England; and yet the dedication of his "Com- 
mentaries " to Edward, and the wish expressed by Cranmer 
on that occasion, would seem to show the contrary. 

* Life of Cranmer, i. 315. + Parker Society's Original Letters, i., 322. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



Cramer's projects of union. 



291 



However that may be, on the 20th of March, 1552, Cranmer 
addressed him a letter on the subject of his favourite scheme 
for a meeting of the heads of the Reformed churches, in order 
to draw up a common confession of faith, and especially on 
the subject of the eucharist.* About the same time Cranmer 
also appears to have addressed Melancthon and Bullinger to 
the same effect. 

These efforts of the English primate to effect a union 
of all the Protestant churches are most praiseworthy. There 
has been already occasion to remark that Calvin was never 
very sanguine about such projects, nor showed much alacrity 
to enter into them, except when there was a prospect of 
implicit submission to his own notions. His answer to 
Cranmer in the present instance can be regarded as nothing 
more than a civil excuse ; though it may be that his views 
of the implacable hostility prevailing among the different 
churches, and the consequent impracticability of a union, 
were more clear-sighted and correct than those of the 
archbishop, owing to his superior opportunities for closer 
observation and more practical knowledge. After some 
compliments to the latter, on his zeal for the welfare of the 
Universal Church, Calvin proceeds to observe : " I wish, 
indeed, it could be brought about that men of learning and 
authority from the different churches should meet some- 
where, and after thoroughly discussing the different heads of 
faith, should, by a unanimous decision, deliver down to 
posterity some certain rule of doctrine. But amongst the 
chief evils of the age must be reckoned the marked division 
between the different churches, insomuch that human society 
can hardly be said to be established among us, much less a 
holy communion of the members of Christ ; which, though all 

* This letter will be found in the original Latin in Cranmer'' s Remains, i. 
346 ; and there is a translation in the Parker Society's Original Letters, i. 24. 
It sufficiently refutes the story of the animosity alleged to have existed at this 
period between Calvin and the English church. On this subject, see Cranmer 's 
Remains, Preface, p. civ. note. 

u 2 



292 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. VIII. 



profess it, few indeed really observe with sincerity. But if 
the clergy are more lukewarm than they should be, the fault 
lies chiefly with their sovereigns ; who are either so involved 
in their secular affairs, as to neglect the welfare of the 
Church, and indeed religion itself, altogether ; or so well 
content to see their own countries at peace, as to care little 
about others ; and thus the members being divided, the body 
of the Church lies lacerated, As to myself, if I should be 
thought of any use, I would not, if need were, object to cross 
ten seas for such a purpose. If the assisting of England 
were alone concerned, that would be motive enough with 
me ; much more, therefore, am I of opinion, that I ought to 
grudge no labour or trouble, seeing that the object in view 
is an agreement among the learned, to be drawn up by the 
weight of their authority according to Scripture, in order to 
unite churches seated far apart. But my insignificance 
makes me hope that I may be spared. I shall have discharged 
my part by offering up my prayers for what may have been 
done by others. Melancthon is so far off that it takes some 
time to exchange letters : Bullinger has, perhaps, already 
answered you. I only wish that I had the power, as I have 
the inclination, to serve the cause," &c. * 

A little while afterwards Cranmer seems to have written 
another letter to Calvin, which does not appear to be extant ; 
but, from the latter's reply, it may be inferred that the 
English primate, finding all his efforts for a union of the 
Protestant churches unavailing, had communicated in it his 
determination to prepare a separate formulary for the church 
of England. As Calvin's answer sets forth at length his view 
of the state of our church at this period, we shall here insert 
it entire. 

" Since at the present juncture a meeting of the principal 
ministers of the Reformed churches, for the purpose of pro- 
mulgating, for the use of posterity, a stable and perspicuous 



Ep. 126. 



chap, viii.] calyin's letter to cranmer. 



293 



confession respecting the different controverted points of 
doctrine, thongh much to be wished, cannot be expected, 
I much approve, reverend lord, the determination you have 
come to, that the English shall at length maturely fix their 
form of religion: lest the minds of the people should be kept 
still longer in suspense by matters being left in uncertainty, 
or at least in a less orderly state than what is proper. To 
this end all that hold power in your country should contri- 
bute, but so as to leave you the principal share. You see 
what such an office demands of you, or rather what God 
may justly look for at your hands, in proportion to the 
functions with which he has entrusted you t In you is 
vested the chief authority, which falls to you not only from 
your high station, but from the opinion which hath long 
been conceived of your prudence and integrity, The eyes of 
many are upon you, either to follow where you lead, or to 
remain motionless under the pretext of your remissness. 
And I wish that under your auspices more progress had 
been made three years ago, and that so much had not 
remained to be done and struggled for now, in order to 
remove gross superstitions. I admit, indeed, that the gospel 
hath made considerable progress in a short time since it 
really began to reflourish in England. Nevertheless, if you 
consider what is still wanting, and that too much remissness 
hath been shown in many things, you should not relax your 
efforts to reach the goal, as if a great part of the course 
had been already accomplished : for, to speak freely, the fear 
continually recurs lest so many autumns be spent in delay, 
that the cold of a perpetual winter may succeed. Your 
increasing age should stimulate you the more; lest if you 
should have to depart hence, leaving all things in disorder, 
the consciousness of your remissness should oppress you with 
anxiety in your last moments. I say disorder; because 
though outward superstitions have been corrected, still 
numerous shoots have been left behind, which may be 



294 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. vnr. 



constantly springing up. Nay, I am told that such a mass of 
popish corruption hath been left, as not only to obscure, but 
almost to overwhelm, the pure and genuine worship of God. 
Meanwhile, that which is the soul of all ecclesiastical order, 
I mean preaching, lives not, or at least is not so vigorous as 
it ought to be. You may be sure that true religion will 
never nourish till the churches are better provided with fit 
pastors, who can really undertake the office of teaching. 
Satan opposes this in artful and secret ways ; but I under- 
stand that one manifest impediment is the spoliation of the 
ecclesiastical revenues. This is truly an intolerable evil ; 
but besides this dissipation, which is but too gross, there 
seems to be another fault as great — the appropriating of the 
public revenues of the Church to the feeding of idle stomachs, 
who troll their vespers in an unknown tongue. I say no 
more, except that it is something too absurd that you should 
approve of this mockery, which is openly at variance with 
the legitimate ordering of the Church. But these things, I 
doubt not, will occur to yourself, and will also be suggested 
to you by that excellent and most worthy man, Peter Martyr, 
whose counsel I am very glad that you use. Nevertheless, 
the many and' arduous difficulties with which you are strug- 
gling, seem to me such as not to render my exhortations 
superfluous. Farewell, most excellent and reverend primate. 
May God long preserve you, enrich you still more with the 
spirit of prudence and fortitude, and give a blessing to all 
your labours. Amen." * 

In the latter part of this letter, Calvin is a little too hard 
upon Cranmer, probably from not sufficiently understanding 
the exact state of affairs at that time in England. The 
cause which occasioned the want of fit and proper preachers 
has been already pointed out. It was not attributable to 
the neglect of Cranmer, nor even, perhaps, as Calvin 
suggests, to the artifices of Satan; but was a very natural 

* Ep. 127. 



CHAP. VIII.] 



calvin's misconceptions. 



295 



result of the sudden and somewhat violent change in the 
religion of the nation. In a small city like Geneva, it 
might be easy to supply the pulpits with efficient ministers, 
though even there, at the beginning of the Reformation, 
the want of them was much felt. At a later period, the 
demand was supplied by the great iuflux of French and other 
refugees, which offered Calvin materials ready to his hand ; 
and thus we find that during his time most of the Genevese 
clergy were Frenchmen. In England the universities were 
still filled with Papists, as Calvin might have learned from 
Bucer. No one could lament more than Cranmer himself 
the deficiency of competent preachers ; and to remedy the 
inconvenience, he had, immediately after the death of Henry, 
caused twelve homilies to be drawn up, to be read from the 
pulpits.* Under the circumstances, this was surely a better 
way of providing for the instruction of the people than 
by leaving it to the extempore effusions of ignorant and 
fanatical enthusiasts ; a method, however, which Calvin 
himself adopted, to fill the pulpits of France, as there will 
be occasion to relate further on. The spoliation of the 
Church by the nobility and courtiers in Edward's reign, 
Cranmer did all he could to prevent ; but his power and 
authority were not sufficient for that purpose. With regard 
to chantries, in which " vespers were trolled in an unknown 
tongue/' an act being introduced into parliament for giving 
them to the king, Cranmer divided with the Roman Catholic 
bishops against the measure ; his object being to preserve 
them intact till the king came of age, in order that their 
revenues might be appropriated to the Church, instead of 
being diverted to secular uses.f It is to this step that 
Calvin seems to allude in his letter. 

* Three of these, namely those on Salvation, Faith, and Works, are said to 
have been drawn up by himself. Cranmer's Remains, Preface, p. xlvi. 

f Burnet, Reformation, ii. 448. 



296 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Account of Servetus — His book against the Trinity — His medical studies — 
Settles at Vienne — His correspondence with Calvin — Broken off by the 
latter — Publishes his "Restoration of Christianity" — Is denounced by 
Trie, and apprehended at Vienne — Calvin furnishes evidence against him — 
Further proceedings — Examination at Vienne — Escapes from prison, and 
is burnt in effigy. 

The year 1553 was rendered the most memorable in 
Calvin's life,, by the burning of Servetus. This act, which 
has furnished his enemies with their favourite, and perhaps 
their justest topic of reproach, and which his friends would be 
willing, were it possible, to bury in eternal oblivion, I shall 
endeavour to relate with the strictest impartiality : no facts 
shall be adduced but what are supported by evidence, but at 
the same time none shall be suppressed. The lessons of 
history lose all their value when delivered in a mutilated 
form ; nor can any reasonable and candid admirer of Calvin's 
character wish to see it protected by suppression and con- 
cealment. The abstract truth or falsehood of the doctrines 
which he promulgated, is not affected by his personal 
conduct ; and even if it were, that would only be an 
additional reason why his acts should be shown in their 
true light. But before relating his proceedings on this 
occasion, it will be necessary to give a short account of the 
unhappy man who was the subject of them.* 

Michael Serveto, or according to the latinised form of his 
name, Servetus, was born at Villa-nueva, in Arragon, in the 
year 1509, and was, consequently, of about the same age 
as Calvin. His father was a notary, and, if we may trust 

* See Appendix, No. I. 



CHAP. IX.] 



ACCOUNT OF SEEVETUS. 



297 



the deposition of Servetus, in his examination at Geneva, 
his family was of an ancient, and even noble, race. We have 
few particulars of his early life. Mosheim supposes that he 
received the first rudiments of his education in a Dominican 
convent — a conjecture founded on the circumstance that 
Quintana, the father confessor of the emperor Charles V., and 
himself a Dominican monk, had a slight knowledge of him.* 
As he grew towards manhood, his father sent him to 
Toulouse to study the law, where he seems to have spent 
two or three years. Servetus possessed, from the cradle, 
a diseased and sickly body, but a mind both inquisitive and 
acute, though imbued with a strong tincture of fanaticism. 
With these dispositions, it is not surprising that he should 
have ardently addicted himself to study, nor that jurisprudence 
should have been laid aside for other pursuits more congenial 
to such a temper. Even the philosophy of the schools had no 
charms for a mind like his. Endowed with much originality, 
and a still larger share of pride and self-will, he felt dis- 
inclined to recognise the established supremacy of Aristotle, 
and to submit himself to a discipline whose first demand is 
an implicit deference. On the other hand, his disposition 
towards mysticism led him to indulge in the reveries of 
judicial astrology. But what proved most attractive to him 
were the novel opinions in religion promulgated by the 
German Reformers, which were then beginning to make a 
great sensation throughout Europe. In conjunction with 
some other scholars of his acquaintance, he entered eagerly 
on the study of divinity ; he began to read the Scriptures, 
in order to seek the truth at the fountain-head ; he perused 
most of the Fathers, especially those who flourished before 
the time of Arius, and felt a decided predilection for the 
works of Tertullian and Irenseus. He also read the books 
of Luther and the other German Reformers, who seemed to 
him not to carry their opinions far enough. Even at this 

* See Cochlseus, Be Actis et Scriptis Lutheri, quoted by Trechsel, Antitr.,\. 63. 



298 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



early period, Servetus had adopted his anti-trinitarian 
notions, and was seized with the desire of distinguishing 
himself as a Reformer. These, however, were dispositions 
which it was unsafe to manifest at Toulouse, a city which 
was considered the most superstitious, and its parliament 
the most sanguinary, in France.* He resolved, therefore, to 
go to Basle, aud to submit his views to CEcolampadius, the 
distinguished pastor of that city. He arrived in Basle 
in 1530, having travelled through Lyons and Geneva. Here 
he introduced himself to CEcolampadius under his real name, 
and a correspondence ensued between them ; in the course of 
which that Reformer expressed the greatest dislike of the 
new-fangled views of Servetus, and represented to him that 
he could not claim to be called a Christian unless he admitted 
the Saviour to be not only the Son of God, but the eternal 
Son of God, of one substance with the Father. He felt it 
to be his duty to submit to his brother Reformers, Zwingli, 
Bucer, and Capito, whom he met at Strasburgh, the notions 
entertained on this subject by Servetus, and to ask their 
advice as to the conduct which he should adopt towards him, 
and especially as to whether he should denounce him to the 
authorities of Basle. This latter proceeding appears to have 
been opposed by Zwingli, who was averse to all com- 
pulsion in matters of conscience ; f though he recommended 
CEcolampadius to prevent if possible the publication of the 
blasphemies of Servetus. { 

From his intercourse with CEcolampadius, Servetus might 
have learned that the publication of his opinions respecting 
the Trinity would be quite as displeasing to the Reformed, 
as to the Roman Catholic Church ; but his vanity and 
obstinacy led him to disregard all such considerations. His 
book on the " Errors of the Trinity," (" De Trinitatis 
Erroribus/') the materials for which had probably been 

* Hist, des Eglises He/., vol. i., p. 10. 
f Mosheim, GescMchte Servets, p. 18. £ P. Henry, iii. 116 



chap, ix.] SERVETUS'S BOOK AGAINST THE TEINITY. 299 



collected at Toulouse, was now ready for the press, and he had 
only to seek a publisher. He found one in Conrad Rous, a 
bookseller of Hagenau, who had also a shop at Strasburgh. 
The book was probably printed by John Secerius ; but though 
Servetus did not hesitate to put his real name on the title 
page, the printer had more prudence than to follow his 
example. It appeared in 1531, when its author had not 
completed his twenty-second year.* 

The work of Servetus must at least be regarded as 
original, for all the anti-trinitarians before his time are 
insignificant. He refers to Scripture as the only source of 
all religious knowledge, but holds that it has two senses, one 
mystical, the other literal. Christianity, he thinks, had been 
prejudiced by the Aristotelian philosophy, and by neglecting 
the study of Hebrew. He holds that the doctrine of the 
Trinity was first erected when the Pope became the sovereign 
of the Church ; and thinks that Paul of Samosata was right 
in representing Christ as a mere man. One of the points 
mainly insisted on is the impossibility that God should have 
a son co-eternal with himself. But what made his book 
doubly offensive was the light, and even blasphemous tone, 
in which these tenets were delivered and enforced.f 

The book was received with equal indignation both by 
Protestants and Papists. Quintana procured an imperial 
edict for its suppression. (Ecolampadius and Zwingli 
expressed their displeasure at it. Bucer at Strasburgh, where 
Servetus was residing, denounced him from the pulpit as 
worthy to have his entrails torn out. J Indeed such was the 

* The title runs : "Be Trinitatis Erroribus Libri Septem. Per Michaelem 
Servetum, alias Reves, ab Arragonia Hispanum, anno mdxxxi." — There is an 
analysis of its contents in Mosheim, GescJiichte Servets, § ix., et seq. ; and in 
Trechsel, Antitr., 68—98. 

+ Thus, for example, he presses the last point by questions such as these : 
" Ubinam uxorem Deus habuerit % an utrumque ipse sexum habeat ? aliudne 
gigni quam caro et sanguis possit 1 " &c. — Mosheim, GescMchte Servets, Beil 394. 
He called the Trinity, a Cerberus, — the three persons of the Godhead, deceptions 
of the devil, &c. J Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 156. 



300 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. IX. 



feeling excited against him in that town that it was no longer 
safe for him to remain there. Accordingly he returned to 
Basle, and ventured again to visit OEcolampadius ; who, 
however, received him with anger, and denounced him to 
the council. Upon this Servetus wrote him a letter requesting 
to be allowed to send off his books to Lyons ; beseeching 
him to spare his reputation and good name ; and deprecating 
the putting of men to death for erroneous interpreta- 
tions of Scripture.* Naturally gentle and tender-hearted, 
CEcolampadius was touched by this appeal. It induced him 
to give a mild report of the book to the council, who had 
requested his opinion of it. Although inclined to recommend 
that it should be altogether suppressed, he nevertheless 
suggested the alternative that it might be read by those 
whose principles were in no danger of being hurt by it : nay, 
he even allowed that it contained some useful things, but 
corrupted and rendered dangerous by what was mixed up 
with them. To the question of the council as to how the 
author should be treated he would make no reply, but 
requested them to consult other persons. f The termination 
of this affair is involved in obscurity. It is certain that 
Servetus shortly afterwards left Basle; but it does not 
appear that any criminal proceedings had been adopted 
against him. The answer of the ministers of Basle, when 
consulted about his case by the council of Geneva in 1553, 
would lead us to believe that he received no harsher treat- 
ment than the written and oral reproofs of CEcolampadius. 
In his examination at Geneva (Aug. 23rd,) he stated that 
he left Germany on account of his poverty, and because he 
did not understand the language: but, asMosheim observes,! 
both these assertions were most probably false ; and indeed 
the former is refuted by his own letter to CEcolampadius, 
before quoted, which shows a desire to remain in Germany. 

* Mosheim, GesckicJtte Servets, Beil. ii. 
+ This paper of OEcolampadius will be found in Mosheim, Beil. hi. % Ibid., 43. 



CHAP. IX.] 



SEEVETUS REPAIRS TO PRANCE. 



301 



On leaving Basle Servetus proceeded towards France, but 
stopped at Hagenau on his way; where he published two 
more Dialogues on the Trinity, to which was appended a 
treatise on justification.* In the preface to this book 
he retracted all that he had said in his former work ; not, 
however, as false, but as childish and imperfect. f His 
intercourse with GEcolampadius and other Reformers, as 
well as the attacks which had been made upon his book, 
had acquainted him with many objections to his doctrines 
of which he was not previously aware, and which he now 
took a fresh opportunity to combat. It is remarkable that 
in the second Dialogue Servetus rejected both the Lutheran 
and the Zwinglian doctrine of the eucharist, and seems to 
have had a notion of that mystical and spiritual presence 
afterwards inculcated by Calvin. J He concluded his book 
by claiming the liberty of freely interpreting Scripture, and 
by invoking a malediction on " the tyrants of the Church,^§ 

Servetus probably arrived in France towards the end of 
1531, or the beginning of 1532. His name had now become 
too well known to be borne with safety, and he accordingly 
laid it aside, and called himself Michel de Villeneuve, from 
the place of his birth. He had by this time discovered that, 
though heresy might consign him to the flames, it would not 
supply the means of living ; and that the care of men's 
bodies offered a more profitable employment than meddling 
with their souls. With a view to turn physician he entered 
the College des Lombards, and devoted himself to the study 
of mathematics and medicine. Mosheim is of opinion that 
between the years 1532 and 1534 he visited Italy, taking 
every opportunity of circulating his books and spreading his 
doctrines ; and thus laying the foundation of those heretical 
opinions respecting the Trinity which afterwards became so 

* Dialogorum de Trinitate Libri Duo. 
t The preface is given entire in Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, p. 44. 
J Trechsel, Antitr., i. 105, note. 
§ " Perdat Dominus omnes Eeclesie© tyrannos. Amen." Ibid., p. 109, note. 



302 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. IX. 



prevalent in that country.* It is evident from some passages 
in his works that he had been in Italy, and had seen the 
Pope; but it is possible that there may be some truth in 
that part of his deposition before the inquisitors of Vienne, 
in which he stated that he entered the suite of Quintana, 
Charles Y/s confessor, in 1529, and was in it when that 
emperor was crowned by the Pope at Bologna. f In this 
case he probably returned to Spain after his residence at 
Toulouse, and there entered the service of Quintana. Be 
this as it may, it is certain that he had returned to Paris in 
1534 ; for it was in that year, as before related, that he 
challenged Calvin to a disputation there. Servetus had now 
attained great proficiency in medicine ; but he was not rich 
enough to pay for his doctor's degree, without which he 
could neither lecture nor practice. To raise the necessary 
sum he repaired to Lyons, where he obtained employment 
from the celebrated printers, Melchior and Caspar Trechsel, 
as corrector of the press. Previously, however, to his journey 
to Lyons he appears to have spent some part of the year 
1534 at Orleans. John Wier, or Wierus, in his book " De 
Prcestigiis Dcemonum"% alludes to the presence of Michael 
Yillanovus at that university in the year mentioned, when 
Sleidan, the historian of the Reformation, and Sturmius, the 
author of the " Antipappus," &c, were also there. Wier 
likewise bears testimony to the Spaniard's abilities in the 
science of medicine. At Lyons Servetus seems to have been 
employed as corrector of the press by the Erellons, who were 
noted for their editions of valuable works, especially those 
of the Fathers ; unless, indeed, his connection with those 
booksellers should not be referred to a later period of his 
life, viz. the year 1540, after he left Charlieu.§ The employ- 
ment of correcting the press was then deemed a more 

* Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, p. 55. 
f Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, p. 31. Charles V. was crowned by Clement VII., 
February 22nd, 1530. 

% Lib. v., c. 6, quoted by Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, p. 32. § Ibid., p. 44. 



CHAP. IX.] 



SERYETUS's MEDICAL STUDIES. 



303 



honourable one than it is considered at present. The 
number of men with acquirements sufficient for the task was 
but small \ and some of the most eminent scholars in Europe 
did not disdain to undertake it. Lyons, too, presented 
many attractions to a man of literary habits. It abounded 
with rich and generous patrons of literature among the 
Italian merchants settled there, especially the Florentines. 
Here Servetus undertook an edition of the works of Ptolemy, 
which he got the Trechsels to print for him in 1535, under 
the name of Villanovanus. In this performance Servetus 
exhibited a better Latin style than in his theological writings, 
in which it is generally impure and embarrassed. A passage 
in this work, in which he gave the preference to Ptolemy's 
description of the Holy Land as being unfruitful, over that 
of Moses, was afterwards urged against him on his trial at 
Geneva. Even at this time he seems to have been preparing 
his " Restitution of Christianity," ("Restitutio Christianismi") 
and to have begun his correspondence with Calvin. 

In 1536, Servetus found himself in sufficient funds to 
return to Paris and take his degrees of magister and 
doctor of medicine. He was now deep in natural science, 
and was reckoned one of the cleverest physicians in France. 
Of the two schools of physic then in vogue he adopted that 
of Galen in preference to the Arabian. In 1537 he 
published his book on syrups, entitled " Syroporum Universa 
Ratio." His subtle and penetrating mind led him to 
conjecture the circulation of the blood, the demonstration of 
which was reserved for our own Harvey;* though it has been 
thought that he got a hint on this subject from the works of 

* A passage containing Servetus's thoughts on this subject occurs in his 
Restitutio, lib. v., and will be found appended to Mosheim's Geschichte Servets, 
Beil. 449, and in the BiUiotheque Anglaise, vol. i. It is not probable that 
Harvey should have seen Servetus's book, and he is therefore entitled to all the 
merit of an original discovery. Mead, the physician, who flourished about a 
century after Harvey, appears, however, to have possessed a copy, which was 
used by M. Audin in compiling his Vie de Calvin. It contains a Latin note 



304 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



Nemesius, a bishop of the fourth century, which were printed 
at Lyons while Servetus was residing there as corrector of 
the press.* Astrology still continued a favourite pursuit 
with him. Nor in the midst of all these avocations did he 
neglect theology, but employed himself in preparing an 
edition of the Bible. 

The lectures of Servetus were numerously attended, and 
were received with an applause which is said to have excited 
the envy and ill-will of his brother professors. Proud and 
overbearing, his manners were but little calculated to mitigate 
such feelings. He spoke openly and without reserve of the 
ignorance of contemporary physicians, and charged them in 
particular with their deficiency in the knowledge of the 
stars. Several private warnings from the dean of faculty 
to carry himself with moderation, and especially to eschew 
astrology, were unheeded. He even published a treatise 
on his favourite science, entitled " Apologetic a Disceptatio 
pro Astrologid" in which the physicians of Paris were 
severely attacked. The faculty succeeded, however, in 
inducing the High School of Paris, including the rector, to 
take part with them against the obnoxious lecturer. A 
complaint was lodged in the parliament of Paris, denouncing 
him as an astrologer, and praying that he should be forbid- 
den to prophesy from the stars; but Servetus had powerful 
friends who got the matter postponed. His assailants, 
growing impatient at the delay, appealed to the tribunal 
appointed to inquire into heresies, but without success. At 
length, however, in March, 1538,t the parliament pronounced 
sentence against him, ordering him to destroy the book 

signed by Mead, in which it is stated that the book had belonged to Colladon, 
the Genevese jurisconsult, who had drawn up an index of the contents. This 
copy bears marks of the fire, and Mead thought it was the only one which had 
escaped the flames (Audin, Vie de Calvin, ii. 311). 

* See Biograpliie Universelle, art. Servetus, and Dr. Smith's Diet, of Greek 
and Roman Biography, art. Nemesius. 

f Mosheim, Gesckichte Servets, p. 32, and Neue Nachrickten, p. 34. 



chap, ix.] SEEVETTJS SETTLES AT VIENNE. 



305 



which he had written against the Paris physicians, and to 
abandon the practice of astrology. 

Servetus was so piqued at this sentence that he left Paris 
for Charlieu. The disgust occasioned by it may also have 
been the reason why he never assumed the title conferred 
by his Paris degree, and which he had been at such pains to 
procure. At Charlieu, a small town near Lyons, he appears 
to have practised as a physician for two or three years, till 
the arrogance of his manners obliged him to quit this place 
also.* It is possible, however, that his peculiar religious 
opinions may have had something to do with the ce follies " 
which obliged him to leave that town. Whilst residing 
there he attained his thirtieth year, when he thought that, 
after the example of Christ, he should be baptised again ; 
holding that before that time of life the rite was unavailing : 
and in one of his letters to Calvin he exhorts him to follow 
his example, f Whether he was actually rebaptised does not 
appear. From a passage in the " Restitutio Christianismi" 
he would seem to have belonged to a secret sect, of Anabaptist 
tendency, which celebrated the Lord's -Supper in a manner 
different both from Protestants and Catholics. J 

On leaving Charlieu, in 1540, he repaired to Vienne, in 
Dauphine. Pierre Palmier, an old pupil of his, who had 
attended his lectures at Paris, on the mathematics and 
astronomy, had obtained the see of Vienne. Palmier was 
a patron of literature ; and it seems to have been at his 
invitation, and that of his brother, the prior of St. Marcel, § 
that Servetus was induced to settle at Vienne. Lodgings 
were provided for him in the archiepiscopal palace ; and 

* " (Servetus) — homme vrayment fort arrogant et insolent, corame testifient 
ceux qui l'ont cogneu a Charlieu, ou il demeura chez la Rivoire, Tan 1540. 
Contrainct de se partir de Charlieu pour les folies lesquelles il faisait, il se retira 
a Vienne en Dauphine'," &c. — Bolsec, Vie de Calvin, p. 4. 

*f* Mosheim, Qeschiclite Servets, p. 84. 
X P. Henry, iii., 123. Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, p. 42. 
§ Mosheim, Ibid., p. 29, note. 

X 



306 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



here he seems to have lived comfortably enough, conforming 
to the Roman Catholic religion, and making a good deal of 
money by his practice as a physician. He now published a 
second edition of his " Ptolemy/' which he dedicated to his 
patron, the archbishop; and in which he struck out his 
remarks respecting the unfruitfulness of Canaan. In 1542 he 
brought out a translation of the Bible, chiefly founded on the 
labours of a learned monk then dead, named Xantes Pagninus, 
but in which he took the opportunity of inculcating his own 
peculiar views. The preface, in which he criticises the spirit 
of the Hebrew language, is said to show much talent.* The 
title-page bears the words "Lugduni, apud Hug onem d Porta;" 
but Lyons was only the place of sale, and it was in reality 
printed at Yienne, where Caspar Trechsel, who had separated 
from the brother, had set up a printing establishment.t This 
work fell under the censure of the Roman Catholic Church, 
and was put on the " Index Expurgatorius " at Louvain. 

Servetus had obtained the office of municipal physician at 
Vienne, and might have lived there in peace to the end of 
his days, had not his fanatical spirit still pursued him. He 
imagined that he was the instrument chosen by God to 
enlighten mankind ; and a notion that the end of the world 
was at hand, and the millenium approaching, goaded him on 
to the fulfilment of his fancied mission. He was now at 
work on his "Restitutio Christianismi" (" Restoration of 
Christianity ") ; and, in order to render it more perfect, 
endeavoured to renew his correspondence with Calvin. 
Nothing can more strongly show the difference between the 
two men than the fact that, whilst Calvin declined to edit 
the Apocalypse, on account of its obscurity, Servetus made 
it the foundation of his " Restitutio." He fancied that he 
was the very Michael pointed out as combating with the 
dragon, which he took to be the Pope. J The woman he 

* P. Henry, iii. 124. f Mosheim, GescMchte Servets, p. 126. 

Z " And there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against the 



chap, ix.] SERVETUS CORRESPONDS WITH CALVIN. 307 



interpreted to mean the Church, and her son, whom God 
saves, the Christian faith. 

Servetus had completed the manuscript of his work by the 
year 1546, and sent it to Geneva, for Calvin's opinion, 
through the medium of Frellon, with whom Calvin was also 
acquainted, and with whom he corresponded under the signa- 
ture of Charles D'Espeville. * Servetus had previously written 
several letters to Calvin, with the view of obtaining his 
opinion on certain points of doctrine. Among other questions 
put by him, the following are recorded: 1. Whether the 
crucified man Jesus be the Son of God, and what is the 
ratio of this filiation ? 2. Whether the kingdom of Christ 
exist among men ; at what time any one enters it ; and 
when he is regenerated? 3. Whether baptism should be 
administered to those already in the faith, like the supper ; 
and for what purpose these sacraments were instituted in 
the New Testament ?t To these questions Calvin replied; 
but Servetus having answered with some insolence, he now 
abruptly broke off the correspondence, alleging want of 
leisure : at the same time addressing some earnest reproofs 
to Servetus, and referring him to his " Institutes " for any 
information he might want. This roused the Spaniard's 
pride, who, according to Calvin's account, sent him several 
letters full of abuse and blasphemy ; and also forwarded to 
him a copy of his own " Institutes," covered in the margin 
with bitter manuscript notes. 

Calvin intimated his rejection of Servetus's correspondence 
in a letter to their common friend Frellon, dated the 13th 
of February, 1546. J In this letter, which inclosed another 
to Servetus, Calvin says, that to satisfy Frellon, he had again 

dragon." — Rev. xii. 7. Beza allows that Servetus may be the man meant, 
provided the preposition cum be not interpreted by Kara (against), but by avv 
(in conjunction with). 

* Jean Frellon, one of the brothers, seems to have been a Calvinist at 
heart (Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, p. 37). 

f D'Artigny, Nouv. Memoires, &c, ii. 69. J See Appendix, No. II. 

x 2 



308 



LIFE OF JOHN" CALVIN. 



[CHAF. IX. 



written to Servetus, but with small hope of doing any good; 
that he was willing to try if he could be converted, but that 
this could not happen till God had completely turned his 
heart ; that as he had written to him in so haughty a tone, 
he had wished to put him down a little, and had therefore 
addressed him more harshly than was his custom : but that 
nothing was more necessary than that he should be taught 
humility. " I shall rejoice/' continues Calvin, " if God be 
so gracious both to him and us, that the present answer may be 
of profit to him. But if he perseveres in his present style, you 
will lose your time in soliciting me to take any trouble about 
him ; for I have other and more pressing business, and shall 
make it a point of conscience not to occupy myself about 
him ; as I doubt not that he is a Satan intended to divert 
me from other more useful studies." 

The tone of Calvin's letter betrays somewhat of the pride 
which he found fault with in Servetus; and though it seems 
to express some interest in his welfare and conversion, the 
real state of Calvin's feelings towards the unhappy Spaniard 
is best shown by another which he addressed, on the very 
. same day, to his friend Farel. The authenticity of this 
letter, which has been sometimes doubted, is now fully recog- 
nised. The original, though not printed in Beza's collection, 
is extant in the Bibliotheque du Hoi, at Paris, and there is 
a copy at Geneva. In it the following passage occurs : — 
" Servetus wrote to me lately, and accompanied his letter 
with a long volume of his insanities, adding a thrasonical 
boast that I should see some wonderful, and, as yet, unheard 
of things. He offers to come hither if I will allow him. 
But I am unwilling to give any pledge ; for if he does come, 
and my authority be of any avail, I will never suffer him 
to depart alive."* 

The " long volume " alluded to by Calvin in this letter 

* See Appendix, No. III. Bolsec (Vie de Calvin, p. 4) gives an extract from 
a letter of Calvin's to Viret, to the same effect ; but its authenticity is doubtful. 
See Trechsel, Antitr., i. 119, note. 



CHAP. IX.] 



CALYIN KENOUNCES SERVETUS. 



309 



must have been the manuscript of the " Restitutio Chris- 
tianismi" which was therefore now complete and ready for 
the press. Calvin forwarded it to Yiret, at Lausanne, and 
when Servetus wished to have it back again, it was not 
forthcoming. It appears that when Calvin rejected his 
correspondence, Servetus applied himself to Viret ;* and that 
he also wrote three letters to Abel Pepin, or Poupin, one of 
the Genevese ministers, with a view to get his manuscript 
restored f in order to correct it; but without success. One 
of these letters is extant, having been used against him on 
his trial at Geneva; and has been printed by Mosheim in 
the appendix to his account of Servetus. Every line of it 
betrays the heated and fanatical imagination of the writer, 
and his hatred of Calvin and the Genevese church. It 
contains a prediction of the fate which awaited himself, and 
expresses a determination to bear it with fortitude, as a 
worthy disciple of Christ; J but as he well knew his own 
temper, and the circumstances of the times, there is, perhaps, 
nothing very surprising in such a prophecy. To this letter 
there will be occasion to refer again. 

Soon after this period the orthodoxy of Servetus seems to 
have been suspected at Yienne, though it does not appear 
that any steps were taken against him in consequence. 
Servetus attributed the origin of this suspicion to the secret 
machinations of Calvin ; who, however, denied the imputation 
in his " Uefutatio ; " nor is there any evidence to fix it upon 
him.§ Yet, in his life and conversation at Yienne, Servetus 
seems to have been constantly on his guard ; and when after- 
wards examined by the inquisition there, he boldly appealed 
to the numerous monks and other ecclesiastics with whom he 

* Calvin to Viret, September, 1548, MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, ii. 460. 
+ See Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, Beil. 415. 
% " I know I must die for this matter ; but, that I may be a disciple like my 
master, I am not disheartened thereby." — Ibid. 

§ See Bibliotlieque raisonnie des Ouvrages des Savans de VEurope, vol. i., 
p. 379, et seq. 



310 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



had been acquainted, to produce any instance of his inclination 
towards heresy.* Neither this suspicion, however, nor the loss 
of his manuscript, deterred him from completing his projected 
work. He either possessed another copy, or took the pains 
of writing it afresh ; but he does not seem to have taken any 
active steps towards its publication before the year 1552. 
Early in that year he applied to his friend Marrinus, who 
resided at Basle, to get it printed for him in that town ;f but 
this not succeeding, he determined on effecting his object 
at Vienne itself. 

Archbishop Palmier's patronage of literature had attracted 
some printers to Vienne, amongst whom was one Balthazar 
Arnoullet, whom Servetus selected for his purpose. Guillaume 
Gueroult, the corrector of his press, was a bitter enemy of 
Calvin, having been driven by him from Geneva, and therefore 
might easily be gained. With Arnoullet himself there was 
more difficulty; as he at first hesitated to print a book which 
had not received the sanction of the ecclesiastical authorities. 
These scruples were removed by a bribe of one hundred 
dollars; a large sum in those days; and which testifies at 
once to the fanatical heat of Servetus' s zeal, and the success 
with which he had pursued the profession of medicine. Two 
presses were secretly erected, and Servetus undertook to 
correct the proofs himself. The first sheet was printed 
about Michaelmas, 1552, and early in January, 1553, the 
impression was complete. Several bales of the book were 
forwarded to Lyons, Chatillon, Frankfort, and Geneva. One 
of the copies fell into the hands of Calvin. 

There was at that time living at Geneva one Guillaume 
Trie, a citizen of Lyons, who had left his native town for the 
sake of religion, but was still in correspondence with a 
relation, named Antoine Arneys, a zealous Papist, living at 
Lyons, and who seems to have been desirous of persuading 
Trie to return to the church he had deserted. In one of his 



* Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, p. 54. 



f Ibid., p. 45. 



chap, ix.] THE "RESTITUTIO CHRISTIANISMI." 311 



letters, Arneys would seem to have insisted very strongly on 
the authority and tradition of the Romish faith, and to have 
reproached the church of Geneva with being totally destitute 
of ecclesiastical order and discipline. Trie was stung by 
these charges, and replied to them in a letter dated Feb. 
26th, 1553 ;* in which, after some general remarks, he 
expressed his astonishment at Arneys* charging the Genevan 
church with a want of discipline, when, on the contrary, vice 
was better chastised there than by all the Romish tribunals. 
He affirmed, that, in spite of the liberty enjoyed at Geneva, 
blasphemy was not suffered to go unpunished, and that all 
false doctrine and heresies were repressed ; and by way of 
contrast, and to cover his opponent with confusion, he 
alleged that close by where he dwelt a heretic was tolerated, 
who deserved to be burnt wherever he was found, by Papists 
as well as by Protestants. By " heretic " he meant one who 
denied the Trinity, called it a Cerberus, and monster of hell, 
and vented all conceivable blasphemy and abuse against that 
sacred mystery. He stated that he had adduced this example 
in order that there might be no question as to what was here- 
tical ; for Arneys himself would confess that this was not only 
a detestable heresy, but that it tended to subvert Christianity 
itself. Is it not shameful, he said, that you should put to 
death those who invoke one God in the name of J esus Christ, 
who maintain that there is no other satisfaction but his death 
and passion, no purgatory but in his blood ; who hold that 
there is no service pleasing to God but that delivered in his 
word ; that all pictures and images are idols that profane his 
majesty ; that the sacraments should be used only according 
to the institution of Christ; that men of these opinions 
should not be simply punished with death, but cruelly burnt ; 
whilst one who called Christ an idol, who would destroy the 
very foundation of faith, who would revive all the dreams of 

* See Appendix, No. IV., where Trie's letters are given at full length. They 
are extant in the appendix to Mosheim's Neue Nachrichten, in the Nouveaux 
Memoires d 1 Histoire, &c, and in Chauffepie, art. Servetus. 



312 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



ancient heretics, who would condemn infant baptism, and 
call it a diabolical invention ; that such a one should not only 
be tolerated, but even be in vogue and honour ? " Where," 
continued Trie, " is the police of your boasted hierarchy ? 
The man I speak of has been condemned by all the churches 
which you reprove ; yet he is allowed to live among you, and 
even to print books so full of blasphemies that I can say 
no more of them. He is a Spaniard, and his real name is 
Michael Servetus, but he now calls himself Villeneuve, and 
practises medicine. Some time ago he lived at Lyons, but 
he is at present residing at Vienne, where the book I speak 
of has been printed by a man named Balthazar Arnoullet, 
who has set up a press there. And, in order that you may 
not think I speak on trust and at second-hand, I send 
you the first sheet as a proof." 

This letter naturally suggests the following inquiries. How 
came Trie, who describes himself as a comparatively unlettered 
man, by his knowledge of a book written in Latin, on 
abstruse points of scriptural controversy, in about a month 
after its receipt at Geneva ? How did he learn the true 
name, profession, and history of the author ? And, thirdly, 
by what means did he become acquainted with the fact, that 
it had been printed by Arnoullet at Vienne ? 

To the first of these questions it might possibly be 
answered, that the book had been denounced from the pulpit, 
and in conversation, by Calvin, and other ministers. With 
respect to the second, it is highly improbable that Trie should 
have got his information from anybody but Calvin. The 
latter was acquainted with the whole of Servetus' s career; 
had seen his work in manuscript ; had corresponded with 
him, and still had many of his letters in his possession. The 
third question it is impossible to answer ; but it is evident 
that the secret of Servetus must have been betrayed by some 
false friend. Mosheim and Dr. Henry are of opinion that 
Frellon communicated the fact to Calvin.* 

* Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, p. 51, and Leben Calvins, iii. 141. 



CH\P IX.] 



SERVETUS DENOUNCED BY TRIE. 



313 



There is another remarkable point in Trie's letter. It was 
evidently written with the intention of destroying Servetus. 
Trie was aware that the French authorities, so far from 
knowing the author of the book, did not even know of its 
existence. If this was not so, why did Trie take such pains to 
point out the author ? To adduce such minute particulars 
respecting him, and even to inclose a portion of the book, 
merely by way of general argument and remonstrance, would 
have been superfluous and absurd. Yet, knowing that the 
Roman Catholic prelates were unacquainted both with the 
book and its author, Trie gravely charges them with wilfully 
harbouring and encouraging a heretic ! and that, too, at a 
time when the frequent burnings of Protestants in France 
furnished but a too convincing and dreadful proof of popish 
zeal. It is plain that consistency is overlooked, or disregarded, 
in the wish to sacrifice Servetus. Trie affects to believe that 
the heretic was perfectly well known at Vienne, and yet 
writes in a manner which shows that he was persuaded of the 
contrary ; but which at the same time manifests the real 
object of his letter. 

What could have been Trie's motive ? He does not seem 
to have had any previous quarrel, or even acquaintance, with 
Servetus ; like Calvin, who, seven years previously, had 
expressed a wish for his death. Was it pure zeal for the 
Church? But in that case, would not a man in Trie's position 
have consulted Calvin about the step he was induced to take ? 
Dr. Henry thinks that Trie's feelings were embittered by the 
persecutions of his Protestant brethren in France. But how 
would it nave soothed them to send a fresh victim to the 
flames by popish hands? The same writer offers another 
conjecture.* Calvin might have expressed his displeasure at 
Servetus's work in Trie's presence, who incontinently writes 
off to Lyons to get Servetus burnt. Here the scene shifts. 
Trie's bitterness for the fate of his evangelical brethren 



* Leben Calvins, iii. 138. 



314 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. IX. 



vanishes, and he becomes the dme damnee of Calvin. But 
again it may be asked, would he not have consulted Calvin 
about a proceeding which, for aught he knew, might have 
seriously compromised him ? The case seems weak which 
must be propped by such conjectures. 

On the other hand, the Abbe d'Artigny goes farther than 
the evidence warrants, in positively asserting* that Trie's letter 
was written at Calvin's dictation, and in calling it Calvin's 
letter in the name of Trie. It is just possible that Trie may 
have written it without Calvin's knowledge ; and the latter 
is therefore entitled to the benefit of the doubt. He cannot 
be absolutely proved to have taken the first step in delivering 
Servetus into the fangs of the Roman Catholic inquisition ; 
but what we shall now have to relate will show that he at least 
aided and abetted it. 

Soon after the receipt of Trie's letter, Arneys, as had 
doubtless been anticipated, laid it before the ecclesiastical 
authorities. Cardinal Tournon, a zealous Papist, and blood- 
thirsty persecutor of the Protestants, was at that time 
Archbishop of Lyons ; and his inquisitorial researches were 
assisted by Matthias Ory, a subtle Italian, whom the cardinal 
had expressly brought from Rome. On the 16th of March 
Servetus was summoned to appear before the court of 
Vienne, where Monsieur de Montgiron, Lieutenant-Genera! 
of Dauphine, presided. It is supposed that Servetus had 
received information of the nature of the summons from his 
friend M. de la Court, one of the judges, and had thus had 
time to get rid of all suspicious papers. f He kept the 
tribunal waiting two hours, at the end of which time he 
appeared with a very unembarrassed countenance. He 
affirmed that he had lived long at Vienne, and had frequently 
kept company with ecclesiastics, but had never yet been 
suspected of entertaining heretical opinions ; that he was 
willing that his apartments should be searched, in order to 

* Tn the Nouveaux M emoire d 'Histoire, &c. f Mosheiin, Ne ue Nachrichten, p . 5 4. 



CHAP. IX.] 



APPREHENSION OF SERVETUS. 



315 



avert the suspicions not only of the court, but of anybody else ; 
for that he had always been desirous to avoid all cause for such 
sentiments being imputed to him. The judges, accompanied 
by the secretary of M. de Montgiron, searched his apartments, 
but found nothing of a nature to criminate him. 

On the following day, the 17th of March, Gueroult was 
apprehended and examined, but with the same result. The 
portion of the " Restitutio" forwarded by Trie, and which seems 
to have consisted of the title-page, index, and a few of the 
first leaves,* was then submitted to all the printers in Vienne, 
and they were interrogated separately as to whether they 
had any knowledge of such a book. As they unanimously 
denied it, they were required to give in an inventory of all 
the books which they had printed during the two previous 
years, but none was found to be in octavo. Arnoullet him- 
self happened to be absent on a journey; he returned, however, 
on the 18th, and was immediately summoned before the 
tribunal ; but no evidence could be produced against him. 
Under these circumstances the court determined that the 
proof was insufficient to warrant any proceedings against 
Servetus, or rather Villeneuve ; and wrote to Ory to come 
to Vienne. The Italian inquisitor perceived that the original 
source must be again resorted to. On his return to Lyons 
he sent for Arneys, and directed him to write another letter 
to Trie, the contents of which were dictated by himself. In it 
Trie was requested to send the whole book, of which he had 
forwarded some leaves. 

Trie's answer is dated on the 26th of March. It is a 
model of hypocrisy. He protests that he did not think the 
matter would have gone so far, nor that Arneys would have 
shown his letter to those whom he had accused of lukewarm- 
ness : as such, however, was the case, he hoped God would 
make it a means of purging Christianity from such deadly 
pests. If the authorities were really hearty in the cause, 

* Bibliotheque Anglaise, ii., 102. 



318 



LIFE OF JOHN" CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



there was no difficulty in the affair. He could not, indeed, 
at present furnish the printed book for which he had been 
asked; but he would put into Arneys' hands something 
more convincing, viz., two dozen papers written by the 
person in question, and containing some of his heresies. If 
the printed book was placed before the accused he might 
deny it, which he could not do with regard to his hand- 
writing. After stating that there were other documents 
which might be produced, Trie continues : " But I must 
confess that I have had great trouble to get what I send 
you from M. Calvin. Not that he is unwilling that such 
execrable blasphemies should be punished; but that it seems 
to him to be his duty, as he does not wield the sword of 
justice, to refute heresy by his doctrines, rather than to 
pursue it by such methods. I have, however, importuned 
him so much, representing to him that I should incur the 
reproach of levity if he did not help me, that he has at last 
consented to hand over what I send. For the rest, I am in 
hopes that if the matter is entertained in your quarter, I 
shall be able to get from him a ream of paper, or thereabouts, 
being the manuscript of what this gallant has printed. 
But it seems to me that you have now proof enough, and 
there is no longer any mystery, nor reason why he should 
not be seized and put upon his trial." 

Calvin is here brought into direct and immediate con- 
nexion with these proceedings. He forwards to the officers 
of the Roman Catholic inquisition, letters which the un- 
happy writer of them had sent to him under the seal of 
secresy and confidence ; * and if these documents should prove 
insufficient, he holds out the hope that he will furnish more. 
It is true that he is represented as taking this step with 
extreme reluctance. A great principle was involved, on 
which he had already expressed his sentiments in the first 

* "Sub sigillo secreti etcomme fraternelle correction." — Servetus's deposition 
at Vienne, April 6 th. 



chap, ix.] CALYIN's EVIDENCE AGAINST SEflVETUS. 317 



edition of his "Institutes;" no less a one than whether 
heretics should he confuted by reason, or consigned to the 
flames. He had already decided for the former of these 
courses; and his feelings of "duty" dictated that he should 
pursue it on the present occasion. But the reputation of a 
friend is at stake. The principle, however momentous, is 
abandoned, and Servetus must burn lest William Trie should 
pass for a light and frivolous person ! Such, at least, is the 
ostensible motive. 

The "two dozen papers" forwarded by Trie were the letters 
which Servetus had sent to Calvin during the correspondence 
to which allusion has already been made ; accompanied with 
some pages from the chapter " De Baptismo " in Calvin's 
"Institutes," covered with marginal notes in the hand- 
writing of Servetus. It has been related, that when Calvin, 
in breaking off his correspondence with him, referred the 
Spaniard to that work for any information that he might 
want, the latter sent him his own book, with bitter comments 
in the margin. Still, however, Ory was not quite satisfied 
with the proof. Handwriting might be denied on oath, 
and was not considered satisfactory evidence in inquisitorial 
proceedings. The main points to be proved were, that the 
"Restitutio Christianismi" was printed at Vienne; that 
Villeneuve was the author of it ; and that Villeneuve and 
Servetus were identical. In the portion of the " Restitutio," 
forwarded by Trie with his first letter, there was nothing to 
show who was the author. Servetus had learnt a little 
caution by experience; and, instead of inserting his name 
at full length in the title-page of the book, as he had done 
in his " De Trinitatis Erroribus," had merely placed the 
mark ™*J 3 (i. e., Michael Servetus Villanovanus) at the end.* 
Yet the characteristic vanity of the man still clung to him ; 
and even in this book he had gratified it, though in a less 
open manner, yet in a way which might have cost him his 



See P. Henry, iii., Beil. 81. 



318 



LIFE OF JOHN" CALVIN. 



[chap. IX. 



life. Part of the " Restitutio " was written in the form of 
dialogues. In the first of these, one of the interlocutors is 
named Michael ; and at the opening of it, the other, called 
Peter, says : " Behold he comes ! It is Servetus, the person 
whom I was seeking :" * a contrivance by which he seems to 
have wished to assert the authorship of the book, without 
parading his name too conspicuously. 

Ory thought more evidence might be obtained, and again 
requested Arneys to write to his relative. Trie was now 
desired to send the manuscript of the "Restitutio/ 3 and some 
stronger proof that Villeneuve was Servetus. He was like- 
wise asked to give his authority for the assertion that 
Gueroult and Arnoullet had been concerned in printing the 
work. A special messenger was dispatched with this letter 
to Geneva ; and though it was late at night when he arrived, 
Trie immediately sat down to answer it. 

Trie's third and last letter is dated on the 31st of March. 
He points out that in the last of the letters which he had 
already sent, the Spaniard excuses himself for assuming the 
name of Villeneuve, when his real name was Servetus or 
Reves, alleging that he had adopted it from the place of his 
birth. As to the manuscript, he would send it if necessary, 
but it had been at Lausanne for a couple of years. Had it 
been in Calvin's possession he would long ago have sent it 
back to the author ; but the latter had addressed it to others 
besides him, who had retained it. Trie then mentions that 
Servetus had been banished by the principal churches of 
Germany twenty-four years previously ; and that the first 
and second letters of (Ecolampadius were addressed to him 
under his real name. Melancthon had also spoken of him. 
With regard to the printers, he would not give up the source 
from which he knew that they were Arnoullet and his 
brother-in-law, Gueroult; but said that he was well assured 
of the fact, and that they would not be able to deny it. The 

* " En adest ; Servetus est, quern ego quserebam." — Biblioiheque Anglaise, 
ii. 102. 



chap, ix.] FURTHER PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SERVETUS. 319 



work might, probably, have been printed at the expense of 
the author, who might have taken possession of the copies ; 
but they would find that it had proceeded from the office he 
had named. 

Ory having now procured all the evidence he could, notified 
it to Cardinal Tournon; who, on the 4th of April, 1553, 
assembled his clergy in the castle of Eousillon. At this 
meeting the Archbishop of Vienne, Ory, and others, were 
present. Palmier must have been well acquainted with the 
handwriting of his old master, and would easily have recog- 
nised it in the documents furnished by Trie. The result 
of this deliberation was that it was resolved to apprehend 
Yilleneuve [alias Servetus) and Arnoullet. 

It was six o'clock in the evening before the archbishop got 
back to Vienne; but he immediately proceeded to carry 
the resolution into effect. Servetus was attending upon 
Madame de Montgiron, who was unwell. A message was sent 
requesting his attendance on some sick persons in the Palais 
Delphinal, who were actually in the royal prison ; and Servetus 
on his arrival thus found himself a captive. Nevertheless, he 
was treated with consideration and respect ; being allowed to 
retain his servant, and to receive the visits of his friends. 
Arnoullet was arrested at the same time, and confined in a 
separate prison. 

Next morning Palmier dispatched a messenger to Rousillon 
to acquaint Cardinal Tournon with what had been done, and 
to summon the inquisitor- general to Vienne. Ory mounted 
his horse and rode so fast that he was at Vienne by ten 
o'clock in the morning. After dinner Servetus was brought 
before the tribunal, which consisted of Ory, Louis Arzellier, 
the archbishop's vicar-general, and Antoine de la Court, 
vi-baillif and lieutenant of Vienne. 

Servetus having been sworn, was interrogated as to his 
name, age, and course of life.* As the answers which he 

* The account of Servetus' s examination at Vienne will be found in the 



320 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. IX. 



gave during this examination differ in several points from the 
account which has been given of him in the preceding pages, 
it will be proper to record them here. He affirmed that his 
name was Michel de Villeneuve; that he was a doctor of 
medicine, forty-two years of age, or thereabout ; that he was 
a native of Tudelle, in the kingdom of Navarre, and had 
been residing at Vienne for more than twelve years. He 
stated that about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years ago he 
entered the service of Quintana, the confessor of Charles V. ; 
and that when the emperor left Spain to be crowned at 
Bologna, he was in Quintana' s suite; that he afterwards 
proceeded with him into Germany, where he lived with 
him till his death; that after that event he went to Paris, 
and resided for some time at the College Calvi; whence 
he removed to the College des Lombards ; that he afterwards 
proceeded to Lyons where he resided for some time, and 
after a short visit to Avignon returned to Lyons ; that from 
thence he went to Charlieu, where he practised physic for 
two or three years ; that from Charlieu he returned again 
to Lyons ; and that finally, at the persuasion of the Arch- 
bishop of Vienne, and of his brother, he came to reside at 
that city, where he had remained ever since. 

A great part of this deposition is undoubtedly false, and 
a little reflection on the prisoner's situation will enable us to 
pronounce pretty confidently what is so. His main object 
was to prevent himself from being identified as the arch- 
heretic, Servetus ; and with this view he forbore to mention 
his residence at the University of Toulouse, where he had 
passed by his real name of Serveto, or Reves,* both of which 
he had put in the title-page of his first work. Had he admitted 
having been there, the books of the university might have 

Nouveaux Memoires d'LTistoire, de Critique, et de Literature, vol. ii.; at the end 
of Mosheim's Neue Nachricliten ; and in Chauffepie's Dictionary, art. Servetus. 

* The latter seems an anagram of Servet, adopted, perhaps, as more 
conformable to the French idiom. 



chap, ix.] SERYETUS'S EXAMINATION AT VIENNE. 321 



been searched, and his identity established. The time which 
he appears, from his answers subsequently at Geneva, to have 
passed there, he now averred that he had spent in the service 
of Quintana ; which he must have entered, if what he said 
be true, in the year 1525, or 1526, when he was sixteen or 
seventeen years of age, or, according to his present evidence, 
fourteen or fifteen. That he accompanied Quintana to Bologna 
may, however, as before stated, possibly be true. This was an 
incident in his life which he was so far from having any reason 
to conceal that, on the contrary, it would rather have tended 
to establish his orthodoxy; for Quintana was one of the 
most zealous Roman Catholics of his time. The same desire 
to avoid recognition also prompted him to say that he was 
a native of Tudelle ; for he had called himself Villanovanus 
in his book " De Trinitatis Erroribus." We may trace the 
same motive in his avoiding all mention of having been at 
Basle, where he had passed by his real name, and where his 
character and publications were but too notorious. The 
time which he passed there he now included in that which he 
spent in Quintana's service. On the other hand the account 
which he gave of himself after his coming to France is, 
perhaps, tolerably correct. He had then changed his name 
to Yilleneuve, and thrown off the character of Servetus ; and 
had thus no longer any motive for concealment. This 
part of his life, too, might be easily traced by his French 
acquaintance. It should be added that in this examination 
he acknowledged having written the following works : the 
" Syroporum universa Ratio" the " Apologetica Disceptatio 
pro Astrologid" the " Apologia pro Symphoriano Campegio 
and notes on Ptolemy's Geography. He affirmed that he 
had printed no other books of his own, though he had 
corrected many written by others. 

If the answers of Servetus, during this examination, 
be compared with those he subsequently made before the 
council of Geneva, they will be found very materially to 



322 



LTFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. IX. 



differ. The reason why the latter have been preferred as 
materials for compiling the preceding account of Servetus is, 
that at Geneva he had no motive for concealing the truth, 
as he had at Yienne. The whole of his previous history- 
was perfectly well known to Calvin, and all attempt at pre- 
varication would have been useless. Besides this, there 
were other circumstances which led him to speak without 
disguise at Geneva. He was supported by a powerful faction 
in that city, nor did he at first imagine that Calvin would 
actually venture to take his life ; * but of this in its proper 
place. We will now return to the course of the narrative. 

Having given these answers respecting his early life to 
the inquisitors, Servetus was shown two printed sheets of 
paper, bearing the title, " De Baptismo, cap. xvii.," with 
manuscript notes in the margin, f some of which he was 
asked to explain. Let us here stop for a moment, to pay a 
passing tribute to the subtlety of the Italian, Ory. We 
have seen that the weak point of his case was that the proof 
of it depended upon handwriting. Had Servetus been 
abruptly asked whether the notes produced were written by 
him, he would most probably have denied it ; but being thus 
thrown off his guard, he was incautious enough to give 
some explanations. He immediately perceived his error, 
and endeavoured to retrieve it by pretending to doubt 
whether the writing were really his : however, he made a 
sort of qualified acknowledgment of it, protesting, at the 
same time, that if anything should be found contrary to the 

* Yet a recent biographer of Calvin (Audin, torn, ii., c. xii.) adopts some 
particulars from the depositions at Vienne, which lead to manifest inconsistencies, 
and gives others which he can only have derived from his imagination. 

f These leaves were from Calvin's Institutes. Dr. P. Henry (iii. 1 45, note) 
says that Mosheim has misunderstood this. But Mosheim says expressly (Neue 
Nachrichten, p. 65) that the leaves were from Calvin's book. It has been stated 
already that Servetus had sent to Calvin a copy of the Institutes, with MS. notes. 
According to Bayle (Calvin, Rem. F.) the Institutes were not divided into books 
before the edition of 1558 ; and that of 1550, the next previous one, was 
only divided into twenty-one chapters. 



chap, ix.] SERVETUS's EXAMINATION AT VIENNE. 



323 



faith, lie submitted it to the decision of Holy Mother Church, 
from which he had never wished to differ j adding, that the 
notes had been written lightly, by way of controversy, and 
without much reflection. It seems not improbable that 
Calvin had selected that part of Servetus' notes which related 
to baptism, with the view of making him out an Anabaptist. 

On the following day, April 6th, Servetus was again 
examined. On this occasion the letters which he had for- 
merly written to Calvin were produced, and he was questioned 
respecting some passages in them. When Servetus saw that 
this correspondence was in the hands of the inquisitors, he 
burst into tears, and said, " Sirs, I will tell you the truth." 
But this was only the preface to a broad and clumsy false- 
hood. He asserted that the letters were written about 
twenty-five years ago, when he was in Germany, at which 
time a book was published there by a certain Spaniard, named 
Servetus ; but he did not know from what part of Spain he 
came, nor where he lived in Germany, except that he had 
heard it was at Aganon (Hagenau), where the book was 
printed. That he read the book in Germany, and being then 
a very young man, thought the author's tenets as good, or 
better, than those of others. That subsequently he came to 
France, and hearing Calvin praised for his learning, wrote to 
him out of curiosity, and without being acquainted with 
him, begging that any correspondence between them might 
be confidential, and by way of brotherly correction. That 
Calvin hereupon charged him with being Servetus, to which 
he replied that though he was not Servetus, he would assume 
his person; not caring, he added, what Calvin might think 
of him, but wishing only for an opportunity of discussion. 
That in this manner the correspondence was kept up till 
within about ten years, when it became angry and abusive. 

Servetus could have hardly believed that so clumsy a story 
would meet with any credit ; indeed it carries a contradiction 
on the face of it, as he first asserts that the letters were written 

y 2 



324 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. IX. 



in Germany, and then in France. He now perceived that the 
matter was taking a serious turn, and resolved to attempt 
his escape. The indulgence with which he was treated in 
prison favoured this design ; indeed it is not improbable, as 
Servetus deposed in answer to the 5th interrogatory, on his 
first examination at Geneva, that some of the magistrates at 
Vienne may have connived at his evasion. He had many 
friends there, including the archbishop, his brother, the 
vi-bailli, and even Montgiron himself. A garden adjoined 
his prison in which he was allowed to walk. Hence the roof 
of a house could be gained, and from that a wall from which 
he could descend into the court of the palace; whence it 
would be easy to reach the gate of the town and the bridge 
over the Rhone. The evening after his second examination, 
Servetus reconnoitred the ground. He also sent his servant 
to the monastery of St. Peter to demand three hundred 
crowns which were due to him, and which the grand prior 
brought to him in person. He was thus well provided with 
money, for none of his property had been taken from him. 
Early on the following morning, the 7th of April, Servetus 
dressed himself completely ; but flinging a night-gown over 
his clothes, and drawing a velvet cap over his head, pretended 
a call of nature, and asked the gaoler for the key of the 
garden. Deceived by his appearance, the gaoler made no 
difficulty in complying with his request, and went without 
suspicion to look after his vineyard. Servetus lost no time 
in making use of the opportunity. Depositing his gown and 
cap under a tree, he gained the court of the palace, which he 
passed with safety, and was soon over the bridge. His flight 
was not discovered for some hours; when an alarm was 
given, the gates closed, and the neighbouring houses searched ; 
but it was too late. Servetus had escaped. 

Nevertheless, the trial proceeded as if he had been present. 
It was now proved by the evidence of three printers in 
Arnoullet's office, that the "Restitutio Christianismi" had 



chap, ix.] SERVETUS ESCAPES — IS BURNT IN EFFIGY. 325 

been printed at Vienne. Extracts were made of the here- 
tical doctrines contained in it ; bnt the civil court did not 
wait for the opinion of the spiritual tribunal respecting them ; 
which, indeed, was not given till six months afterwards, and 
when Servetus had been already executed at Geneva.* The 
judgment of the former court was pronounced on the 17th of 
June. For his heretical doctrines, violation of the royal 
ordinances, and escape from the royal prison, Servetus was 
sentenced to pay a fine of one thousand livres tournois to the 
dauphin ; to be carried in a cart, together with his books, on 
a market-day, from the gate of the Palais Delphinal through 
the principal streets and squares to the market-place, and 
thence to the Charneve, the place of execution, where he was 
to be burned alive by a slow fire. Meanwhile, as he could 
not at present be captured, the last part of this sentence was 
to be executed on his effigy ; which was done on the day it 
was pronounced. Arnoullet, who had been apprehended, 
was discharged on showing that he had been deceived by 
Gueroult, who had represented the book as harmless. The 
latter seems to have escaped by flight. The confiscated 
property of Servetus was so considerable, that M. Montgiron 
begged it of the king for his son. f 

Besides its blasphemies, the "Restitutio Christianismi" 
contained attacks upon the Romish Church as strong and 
bitter as anything ever uttered by Luther or Calvin. J 
Arnoullet took care that the copies remaining in France 
should be destroyed. Those at Frankfort were burnt at 
the instance of Calvin, who sent a letter to the ministers of 
that town by a messenger who could point out the book- 
seller in whose possession they were.§ At Geneva, Robert 
Stephens sacrificed all the copies which had come into his 
hands. Thus out of an edition of one thousand copies, it is 
said that six only were preserved. || 



* Trechsel, Antitr., i. 149. f P. Henry, iii. 150 and 170. 

£ Specimens are given by P. Henry, in Vol. iii., Beil. iii. § See Ep. 153. 

|| Mosheim, Oeschichte Servets, p. 343. 



326 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN 



[chap. X. 



CHAPTER X. 

Servetus arrives at Geneva — Is arrested and indicted — His trial — Is claimed by 
the French authorities — His insolence — Opinions of Bullinger, Farel, and 
others, on his case — Brings a counter-accusation against Calvin — The Swiss 
churches consulted — Their replies — Servetus condemned and executed — 
His character — General indignation against Calvin — Calvin's hook on the 
punishment of heretics — Grounds of his defence — Justified by Melancthon 
and others — Calvin and the French inquisition — Inquiry into his motives — 
His defence unsatisfactory — Replies to his book. 

On escaping from the prison of Vienne, the first design 
of Servetus, if we may trust his depositions at Geneva, was 
to proceed into Spain. Alarmed by the pursuit of the 
gens d'armes, he abandoned this plan, and resolved to make 
his way to Naples ; where he hoped to find subsistence by 
practising medicine among the numerous Spaniards settled 
in that city. Reasons which he does not explain induced 
him to linger in France for upwards of three months ; and 
when he at last set off for Italy, he chose the road through 
Geneva and Switzerland. Calvin, however, did not believe 
this account, and suspected that this time had been passed in 
Italy.* In his examination on the 28th of August, Servetus 
was questioned as to whether he did not last come from 
Italy and Venice ; but he stoutly denied it, and affirmed 
that he had never been at the latter place in his life. Venice 
appears to have been at that time the favourite seat of 

* See Servetus 1 s Examinations at Geneva, of the 17th, 23rd, and 28th of 
August, in Trechsel, i.,Beil. iii. In a letter to Sulzer, (Ep. 156), Calvin says : 
" He (Servetus) has lately caused a larger volume to be secretly printed at 
Vienne, but made up of the same errors. When the affair was discovered, he 
was immediately imprisoned, but contrived to escape, I know not how, and 
rambled in Italy for nearly four months.'" — P. Henry (iii. 150, note) here 
accuses Calvin of eiTor, and makes this period less by confounding the date of 
Servetus's escape with that of his sentence at Vienne. 



chap. x.J SERVETUS ARRIVES AT GENEVA. 827 

scepticism and heresy. We learn from a letter of Melancthon's 
to the Venetian senate, supposed to have been written in the 
year 1539, that the work of Servetus, " De Trinitatis 
Erroribus" was even then much circulated in that city.* 
Hence, probably, the origin of Calvin's suspicions. But as 
Servetus, in his trial at Geneva, avowed the authorship both 
of that work and of the "Restitutio Christianismi" it is 
difficult to see how he could have benefited his cause by 
denying his journey to Italy, had he really been there ; or 
why, if he had actually made his way to Venice, he should 
have been induced to travel back to Geneva, the residence 
of the man whom he knew to be his mortal enemy, in the 
short space of three months. 

Whatever may be the truth of this matter, which is not 
very important, it is certain that Servetus arrived at Geneva 
about the middle of July, 1553. He was alone, and on foot, 
and took up his lodging at a small inn on the banks of the 
lake, called the Auberge de la Rose. He had slept the 
previous night at the village of Louyset, or Le Cuiset, at 
which place he had arrived from Lalenove, on a hired horse. f 
His dress and manner bespoke something more than a foot 
traveller, and excited the attention of his host. He was well 
provided with money ; for, on being committed to prison, he 
deposited in the hands of the gaoler ninety-seven gold crowns, 
besides a gold chain worth twenty crowns, and six gold rings. 
He seems to have affected a free and careless manner, and to 
have conversed without reserve. His host asked him if he 
was married? to which question Servetus returned a light 
answer, savouring rather of the cavalier than of the learned 
doctor and would-be Reformer. { He seems to have relied 
on his person being unknown, and this behaviour was 
probably put on for the purpose of better concealment. On 
one occasion he was observed to enter the church while 

* See Trechsel, Antitr., i. 36-38. + Examination of 28th of August. 

J " On trouve bien assez de femmes sans se marier." — Ibid. 



328 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. x. 



Calvin was preaching. After staying at the inn about a 
month he talked of proceeding to Zurich, and had actually 
hired a boat to convey him by the lake as far as possible in 
that direction ; when, on Sunday the 13th of August, an 
officer of police suddenly appeared, and arrested him in the 
name of the council. 

The manner in which Servetus was discovered is unknown, 
but it has been supposed that he was recognised in the 
church. It seems that he had only come to Geneva with 
the view of proceeding farther ; * and that Grotius was in 
error in saying that he went thither to consult Calvin : nor 
is there much probability in the supposition of Musculus, 
that he wished to avail himself of the ill-will of some of the 
principal citizens towards Calvin, and to make Geneva a 
centre for disturbing other churches, t Calvin avows that he 
was arrested at his instance. J 

Servetus was confined in the old prison near St. Peter's 
church. According to the laws of Geneva it was necessary 
that, in criminal cases of this description, the prosecutor 
should also be imprisoned, and make himself responsible 
with his life for the truth of his accusation. Nicholas de la 
Fontaine, who had formerly been cook to M. de Fallais, but 
who was now a student in theology, and Calvin's secretary, 
was induced to undertake this office. On the third day, 
however, Nicholas was dismissed, Calvin's brother, Anthony, 
having become bail for him ; and on the fourth, at the 
demand of Colladon, advocate for Nicholas, both he and his 
surety were entirely discharged from all responsibility. § 

On the Monday following his apprehension, Servetus was 
brought before the court, when La Fontaine produced thirty- 

* "Qu'il se tenoit cache a Geneve afin de s'en pouvoir aller sans etre 
reconnu." — Exam. 23rd of August. t P. Henry, iii. 152. 

J (l At length having come hither in an evil hour, one of the syndics, at my 
instance, ordered him to be imprisoned." — Calvin to Sulzer, Ep. 156. Compare 
the Hefutatio Serveti, Opera, viii., 511, A., Amst. ed. 

§ Calvin to Farel, Ep. 152, and Examination of 17th of August. 



chap. X .] SERYETUS ARRESTED AND INDICTED. 



329 



eight heads of accusation against him, drawn up by Calvin. 
In these he was charged with having disturbed the German 
churches by his heresies for four- and -twenty years; with 
having published his books, entitled, "De Trinitatis Erro- 
ribus" and " Restitutio Christianismi," and his notes on 
Ptolemy and on the Bible; and also with having escaped 
from the prison of Vienne. The rest of the charges turn 
chiefly on points of doctrinal divinity ; but in the eighth he 
is accused of maintaining his heresies in an insulting manner, 
not only against the ancient Fathers of the Church, as 
St. Ambrose, St. Augustin, and others, but also against 
modern doctors ; and especially with calling Melancthon, 
" a man without faith, a son of the devil, Belial, and Satan." 
But the most remarkable of these articles is the thirty- 
seventh, which runs thus : " Item, That in the person of 
M. Calvin, minister of God's word in this church of Geneva, 
he has defamed in a printed book the doctrine preached in 
it, uttering all the insults and blasphemies it is possible to 
invent." In support of these charges, the manuscripts and 
printed books of Servetus were handed into court. 

Servetus did not deny that he was the author of these 
works. He asserted that he did not think he had blasphemed; 
but that if his blasphemies were pointed out, he was ready 
to retract them. He acknowledged having called the Trinity, 
a Cerberus ; yet he professed to believe in that doctrine, but 
declared that he interpreted the word person in a different 
sense from most modern expounders. To the charge of 
having insulted Calvin he answered : " That M. Calvin had 
before abused him in several printed books; that he had 
replied, and shown that Calvin was wrong in some passages ; 
that when the said Calvin wrote that he (Servetus) was 
intoxicated with his opinions, he had retorted the charge, 
and affirmed that Calvin himself was often wrong." 

On the following day, Tuesday, August the 1 5th, the 
court assembled at the Eveche. Among the judges we find 



330 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



the names of Perrin and Vandel, the leaders of the Patriot 
party; who were also present at some of the subsequent 
examinations. The same charges were preferred which had 
been exhibited the previous day, nor are there any material 
variations in the answers of Servetus ; only he added that he 
had not abused Melancthon in any published work. He 
also affirmed that Calvin had persecuted him in such a 
manner that it was not his fault if he had not been burnt 
alive. He confessed that he was Servetus. 

On the 16th and 17th his examination was renewed on 
the same articles. On the latter day the copy of Calvin's 
"Institutes," in which Servetus had made his notes, was 
handed into court, and also the letter which he had written 
some years previously to Abel Poupin, and which has been 
already mentioned.* 

After this Servetus was remanded till Monday the 21st of 
August. It had probably been discovered that Nicholas 
de la Fontaine was no match for his antagonist ; for on the 
day mentioned Calvin appeared against him in person, sup- 
ported by the other ministers of Geneva. The examination 
turned wholly on points of doctrine. Calvin refuted the 
opinions of Servetus from Clement, Justin, Origen, Tertuliian, 
and other Fathers ; and showed from Origen's " Homilies " 
that Servetus was wrong in asserting that the term 
"Trinity" had not been used previously to the council of 
Nice. Arguments were entered into respecting the nature 
of the persons of the Trinity. As the interrogation proceeded 
Servetus demanded books, which he was allowed to have at 
his own expense, provided they could be procured at Geneva 

* This letter will be found in Mosheim's Geschichte Servets, Beil. 415, and in 
the Bibliotheque Anglaise, ii. 130. The following is the most obnoxious passage : 
" Your gospel is without one God, without true faith, without good works. For 
one God you have a three-headed Cerberus, for true faith a fatal dream ; and 
good works you call empty pictures. The faith of Christ is to you a mere 
inefficient pretence, man a mere log, and God the chimsera of a will that is 
not free," &c. 



CHAP. X.J 



TEIAL OF SERVETUS. 



331 



or Lyons. Calvin undertook to lend him Tertullian, Irenseus, 
St. Ignatius, and Polycarp. He was also to be furnished 
with ink and paper. 

It was during this examination, that Calvin led Servetus to 
expose his pantheistic principles, and even pushed him to 
declare his opinion that the divinity resided not only in 
stocks and stones, but in the very devils themselves.* It is 
remarkable, however, that these words are not to be found in 
the records of the trial; Dr. Henry conjectures that the clerk 
may have omitted them out of moral feeling ! f The pan- 
theistic notions of Servetus were founded on the axiom that 
there can be no action without contact. These views he 
developed in a paper which he afterwards drew up and 
forwarded to Calvin. % Servetus was really a man of talent \ 
but he failed, as every man will fail, in the vain attempt to 
apply philosophy to religion. 

Proofs sought far and wide were adduced against him. 
The judgment of OEcolampadius, pronounced twenty-three 
years previously, was brought forward ; and some passages 
from the " Loci Theologici " of Melancthon, in which he is 
styled "a fanatic," " a cunning and impious man." He was 
also charged with the passage in his notes on Ptolemy, which 
contradicted Moses' account of the Holy Land, but which, 
as we have seen, he had suppressed in his second edition. § 
Servetus seems justified in treating this charge with con- 
tempt. He wiped his mouth, and said: "Let us go on;" 
which highly offended Calvin. Other heads of accusation 
were, that he had rejected infant baptism; that he had 
called the doctrine of the Trinity a dream of St. Augustin ; 

* See Calvin's Letter to Farel, Ep. 152, and the Refutatio Serveti, Opera, viii. 
522, B. + Vol. iii. 157. $ See Mosheim's Neue Nachrichten, p. 102. 

§ The following seems to have been the objectionable part : " But know, 
excellent reader, that such good qualities have been ascribed to this country 
wrongfully, or out of pure boasting, since the experience of merchants and 
travellers shows it to be uncultivated, sterile, and altogether disagreeable." — 
See Mosheim, Oeschichte Servets, B. ii. ? note 4. 



332 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



and that he had denied the immortality of the soul. The first 
of these charges was probably the most dangerous, as the 
Anabaptists were everywhere regarded with dread and 
suspicion, as the enemies of civil order. The last accusation* 
that he held the soul to be mortal, he rejected with all the 
marks of horror and aversion ; * nor does it appear to have 
had any foundation. The second of these charges he 
acknowledged and defended, maintaining that it was the doc- 
trine of the ancient Church. On this point a warm dispute 
ensued between him and Calvin, during which he displayed 
so much insolence, that Calvin and the rest of the clergy 
were obliged to retire. Calvin affirms, that in this discussion 
his adversary showed an almost total ignorance of Greek ; t 
but, though he may have made some slip which gave rise to 
this imputation, it can hardly be believed that Servetus, who 
was one of the most learned men of his time, who had edited 
Ptolemy, and written his book on " Syrups," was really 
ignorant of that language. In the latter work, he adduces 
numerous passages from Galen, interpreting many, and 
correcting some ; and in his edition of Ptolemy, frequently 
amends the Latin version of Pirckheimer. J 

The severity of Servetus's imprisonment was now increased ; 
and from some of the complaints which he afterwards 
addressed to the council § it would seem to have been carried 
to a cruel extent. He was not allowed the means of common 
cleanliness. Meanwhile Calvin declaimed against him from 
the pulpit, in order to acquaint the people with his doctrines, 
and incite them against him, and thus to counteract any 
efforts of the Libertine party in his favour. || 

The case was now handed over to the procureur-general, 
and on the 23rd of August Servetus was examined by that 

* See his letter to the council, 22nd of September, Bibliotheque Anglaise, 
ii. 148. 

f " He could no more read Greek than a boy learning his A, B, C." — Refutatio 
Serveti, Opera, viii. 523, A. J Mosheim, Geschichte Servets., ii., §. xxxvii. 

§ Bibliotheque Anglaise, ii. 146 and 152. || P. Henry, iii. 159. 



CHAP, x.] 



TRIAL OF SERVETUS. 



333 



officer. The interrogations chiefly turned on his former 
course of life : but as his answers have, for the most part, 
been embodied in the preceding narrative, it is unnecessary 
to repeat them. On the 24th he presented a paper to the 
council, in which he demanded his release, and stated, 1st, 
that it was a novel proceeding, unknown to the Apostles 
and the ancient Church, to subject a man to a criminal 
prosecution for points of doctrine. 2nd, that he had been 
guilty of no sedition or disturbance in the territory of Geneva; 
that the questions he treated were of a difficult nature, and 
addressed only to the small body of the learned; and that 
he had always condemned the conduct of the Anabaptists in 
opposing the magistrates. 3rd, that as he was a foreigner, 
unacquainted with the customs of the country and the 
practice of the courts of law, he requested to be allowed an 
advocate to conduct his cause. * 

It must be owned that these representations seem to 
carry great weight with them. It is difficult to see on what 
principle the Genevese assumed the right of trying a man 
who was not a citizen, nor even a resident, but merely a 
traveller casually passing through their town; and whose 
offence, even if they could justly establish a tribunal for the 
trial of heresy, was at least not committed within their 
territories. Calvin seems here to have claimed a jurisdiction 
as extensive as that of the Pope. The unhappy instance of 
Joan Bocher in England, and even the trial of Servetus by 
the inquisition of Vienne, are at least in some degree justified 
by the offence having been committed against the laws of 
those countries, provided for such cases. But* how could 
Servetus be made amenable to any statutes of Geneva, for 
having published certain books at Hagenau and Vienne? 
The only head of accusation which would seem to make him 
amenable to the laws of Geneva is that in which he is 

* This paper was signed u M. Servetus, en sa cause propre." — See Bibliotheque 
Anglaise, ii. 135, et seq. 



334 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



charged with having defamed Calvin, and the Genevese 
church. But this could hardly have been capital ; nor have 
his judges ventured to recapitulate it in his sentence.* 

But the most unjust and barbarous part of these proceedings 
was the denying Servetus the benefit of counsel. "When the 
court next met, on the 28th of August, a " Representation 
and Articles " were given in, drawn up in the hand-writing 
of one of Calvin's copyists. The former of these papers 
begins by saying : " That it was quite evident that Servetus 
had not replied satisfactorily to the questions put to him, 
and had done nothing but lie, vary, and tergiversate ; making 
a mockery of God and his word, by quoting, corrupting, and 
twisting from their proper sense, passages from the sacred 
Scriptures, in order to conceal his blasphemies, and escape 
punishment." Then, after adducing instances in support of 
these charges, there follows a long argument to show that 
heresy was made capital by the Roman emperors, and that the 
punishment of death is not contrary to the spirit of the New 
Testament. In reply to Servetus* s petition, it is insisted that 
he should not be permitted to have counsel. " For who, it 
is asked, is he who could or would assist him in such 
impudent lies, and horrible statements ? not to mention that 
it is forbidden by law, and was never yet seen, that such 
suborners should have the benefit of an advocate. Besides, 
there is not a single grain of innocence apparent to justify 
the intervention of a counsel." Strange reasoning ! which 
shows that Calvin had long since prejudged his unhappy 
victim : which would prove that the more a man needs 
the assistance of an advocate the less he is entitled to it ! 
As if there might not be cases in which a counsel could 
dissipate and chase away those mists of seeming guilt which 
may sometimes envelope and obscure men the most innocent, 
and causes the most just ! 

The conduct of the prisoner seemed now much altered. 

* See the sentence in P. Henry, iii., Beil. iii., p. 75, et seq. 



chap.x.] SERVETUS CLAIMED BY THE FRENCH. 



335 



He declared his readiness to die, and loaded Calvin with 
abuse, calling him Simon Magus, cacodsemon, an impostor, 
a sycophant, &c. Servetus seems to have applied the first of 
these names to Calvin on account of his doctrine of predesti- 
nation.* The case may now be almost regarded as closed. 

On the 31st of August the viguier, or commandant of the 
royal palace at Vienne, arrived at Geneva, bearing a letter 
signed by Chassalis, greffier, on behalf of the vi-bailli and 
procureur of Vienne, in which he thanked the magistrates of 
Geneva for having informed them of the detention of 
Servetus, and begged that he might be sent back with their 
officer, in order that their sentence upon him might be 
carried into execution. He added that they would do the 
like by them in a similar case, but declined sending their 
proceedings against Servetus, as they could not allow any 
other judgment to be passed upon him. 

It appears, therefore, from this letter, that the tribunal of 
Vienne had not only been informed of the capture of 
Servetus, but had also been requested to forward their 
proceedings, in order to found fresh charges against him. 
And though they did not comply with this request, yet 
they forwarded a duplicate of their sentence against the 
prisoner, f 

The viguier was brought into the presence of Servetus, 
and the latter was asked whether he knew him ? To which 
he replied in the affirmative, adding that he had been two 
days in his custody. The viguier also recognised his former 
prisoner. Some questions were put to him respecting his 
apprehension at Vienne, and the manner in which he escaped 
from prison. He again ascribed his prosecution there to the 

* " The assertion of Simon Magus, who is mentioned in the Acts of the 
Apostles, and called by ecclesiastical historians the first Christian heretic, that 
' Men are saved according to his grace, and not according to just works,' 
contains in it the essence of Calvinism." — Tomline's Refutation of Calvinism, 
ch. viii., p. 571. For more on the same subject see that work, pp. 515, 526. 
*f* See Trechsel, Antitr., i./Beil. hi. Note on Examination of 1st of September. 



336 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



letter which Trie had written at the instance of Calvin. 
Being asked whether he would return with the officer to 
Vienne/or remain at Geneva, he flung himself on the ground, 
and begged with tears to be judged by the Genevese council. 
He then confessed his sorrow and repentance that he, who 
had so often written against the mass, should have conformed 
to it while living at Vienne. * The viguier returned with a 
certificate under the hand of Servetus, that he had escaped 
without the knowledge of his gaoler. 

On the 1st of September Calvin, accompanied by the other 
ministers, visited Servetus in his dungeon, bringing with him 
a paper containing the heretical passages in his works, which 
he was desired to retract. Servetus, however, declined to 
answer in prison, as being an unfit place for such a dispu- 
tation, for which he also said that he was disqualified by 
anxiety of mind. A discussion ensued on this point, and 
the council at length determined that, to prevent all ebul- 
lition of feeling, the dispute should be carried on in writing ; 
that Calvin should put down in Latin, in a compendious form, 
the errors of Servetus ; that the latter should give in his 
answers, with leave to amend them; and that when these 
papers were ready, they should be submitted to the Swiss 
churches for their decision, f At this interview Servetus 
was desired to name those who were indebted to him in 
several parts of France ; which, with a proper feeling, he 
refused to do, on the ground that it might lead to the confis- 
cation of their property. 

The proceedings against Servetus were now suspended for 
a fortnight, which Calvin employed in preparing his paper. 
At the next examination, on the 15th of September, Servetus 
presented a memorial to the council, in which he complained 
of this delay, and of the filthy and unwholesome state of 
his prison.J He also begged that his case should be referred 



* P. Henry, iii. 170. + Ibid., iii. 171. 

X " Les poulx me mangent tout vif, mes "hausses sont descirees, et n' ay de 



CHAP. X.] 



INSOLENCE OF SERVETUS. 



337 



to the council of Two Hundred. This last demand could 
not be entertained, as Ami Perrin, who, it was suspected, 
wished to make Servetus an instrument for overthrowing 
Calvin, had the majority of voices in that assembly.* In 
the ordinary council Calvin was predominant; and he was 
resolved to keep the case in their hands. 

Calvin's paper consisted of thirty-eight articles, containing 
heretical and blasphemous propositions, extracted from the 
work of Servetus. The most important were those con- 
taining blasphemies against our Saviour and the Holy Ghost, 
and the rejection of infant baptism, t After Servetus had 
made a short answer, Calvin drew up his " Refutation," 
which was subscribed by himself and the rest of the Genevese 
ministers. The replies of Servetus to this document are 
very insolent, and seem almost like the productions of a 
madman. He repeatedly gives Calvin the lie. In one he 
says : " Deny yourself to be a homicide, and I will prove 
it by your acts. You dare not say that you are not Simon 
Magus. Who, therefore, can trust in you, as in a good tree ? 
In so just a cause my constancy is unshaken, and I fear not 
death." Again: "Whosoever is not a Simon Magus is 
considered a Pelagian by Calvin. All, therefore, who have 
existed within the pale of Christianity are condemned by 
him : the apostles, their disciples, the fathers of the ancient 
Church, and all the rest. For no one ever thoroughly 
abolished free-will except Simon Magus." From a letter 
which Servetus addressed to the council, J it appears that he 
wrote these answers on Calvin's own paper, for which he 
naively apologises on the ground that there were many little 
words (such, for example, as mentiris, &c.,) which would not 
be otherwise understood ; and he hopes that Calvin will not be 

quoy manger, ne perpoint, ne chemise, que une mechante."— Bibliotheque 
Anglaise, ii. 146. * P. Henry, in. 172. 

f These articles, together with Servetus's answers, will be found at the end 
of Calvin's Eefutatio Serveti, Opera, viii. 523, et seq., Amst. ed. 

t Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, p. 418. 

Z 



338 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



offended, as there would have been an inextricable confusion 
had he not done so ! 

On the 21st of September, this paper, with the answers, 
was ready to be submitted to the Swiss churches. Calvin 
was so far from having advised this step, that, as appears 
from a letter to Bullinger, he had actually protested against 
it. He seems to have considered it as derogatory to his 
authority, and complains that he now stood in such a 
situation with the council that whatever he said was regarded 
with suspicion ; so that if he asserted that the sun shone at 
midday, they would immediately begin to doubt.* Yet this 
letter is hardly consistent with a passage in Calvin's tract 
against Servetus, in which he asserts that he willingly 
complied with a proposition of the latter to appeal to other 
churches ; f nor is this the only instance in which we find 
a discrepancy between his correspondence and the work just 
referred to. Calvin, therefore, did not want any confirmation 
of his opinion on the case, though the council did. He had, 
however, acquainted Bullinger with the whole matter; and 
he it was who undertook to obtain a unanimous opinion 
from the churches. Bullinger espoused Calvin's views in this 
affair more warmly than any other of the ministers ; always 
excepting Calvin's friends and fellow-countrymen, Beza and 
Farel. He recommended the capital punishment of Servetus 
in a letter to Beza dated on the 30th of August; when, 
considering the want of rapid communication in those days, 
he could have heard but few particulars of the trial. In this 
letter he said: "But what is your most honourable senate 

* " t Our council will shortly send the dogmas of Servetus to you, to learn your 
opinion of them. I protested against their giving you this trouble; but they 
have arrived at such a pitch of madness and fury, that they are suspicious of 
all that I say ; so that if I should affirm at midday that the sun shone, they 
would immediately begin to doubt." — Calvin to Bullinger, Sept. 7th, 1553. MS. 
Gen., apud P. Henry, hi. 95. 

f " And when he appealed to other churches, / willingly acceded to this 
condition.'" — Refutatio Serveti, Opera, viii. 523, B. 



chap, x.] OPINIONS ON THE CASE OF SERVETUS. 



339 



of Geneva going to do with that blasphemous wretch 
Servetus? If they are wise, and do their duty, they will 
put him to death, that all the world may perceive that 
Geneva desires the glory of Christ to be maintained 
inviolate."* 

But of all Calvin's correspondents Farel displayed the 
greatest violence on this occasion. Calvin had written to 
him on the 20th of August, to inform him of Servetus' s 
capture, and of the proceedings which had been instituted 
against him; and in this letter, though he hoped that the 
Spaniard would be put to death, he at the same time 
expressed a desire that the atrocity of the punishment 
should be mitigated. Farel, in reply, says : " In desiring a 
mitigation of his punishment you act the part of a friend 
towards a man who has been your greatest enemy. But I 
beseech you so to bear yourself that none shall rashly dare 
hereafter to promulgate new doctrines, and throw all into 
confusion, as Servetus has so long done."t An atrocious 
passage from a man calling himself a minister of Christ ! 
and remarkable likewise as pointing to the private enmity 
between Calvin and Servetus ; for which Farel here all but 
exhorts him to take vengeance. Nor can we dismiss Calvin's 
letter just quoted without observing that it affords another 
instance of discrepancy between his correspondence, and the 
book he published against Servetus : for in the " Refutatio " 
he remarks that he did not bear so mortal an enmity towards 
Servetus, but that he might have escaped with his life had 
he shown any symptoms of modesty.J 

* See Original Letters, published by the Parker Society, Part ii., p. 742. 
The editor does not explain why Bullinger, writing to Beza, calls the senate 
(or council) of Geneva, his senate. Beza was at that time living at Lausanne 
under the government of Berne. f Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 155. 

X Refutatio, &c, Opera, viii. 517, A., Amst. ed. The exact expression used 
by Calvin in his letter to Farel, is : "I hope (spero) the sentence will at least be 
capital; but desire the atrocity of the punishment to be abated." — Ep. 152. 
Yet in the face of this, and of Calvin's former letter to Farel, in 1546 (for which 
see the preceding chapter), Dr. Henry affirms (iii. 153) that he had no intention 

z 2 



340 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



All the churches, however, were not so favourably disposed 
towards Calvin's view of the case as that of Zurich, through 
its pastor Bullinger. That of Basle in particular, of which 
Sulzer was then the chief minister, Calvin suspected, might 
return an answer not quite in accordance with his wishes. 
He was in bad odour in that city, where Castellio was 
residing; and he therefore got some of his friends to use 
their influence with Sulzer, in order to obtain such a verdict 
as he wished. At the instance of Bullinger, John Haller, 
the minister of Berne, wrote to Sulzer on the subject, but 
could obtain no answer.* Calvin himself addressed a long 
and laboured letter to him, in which, after stating that 
impiety had reached such a pitch as to demand the inter- 
ference of the secular arm, though care should be taken to 
avoid imitating the rabid fury of the Papists, he places the 
case of Servetus on three grounds : first, the enormous errors 
and detestable blasphemies by which he had sought to 
corrupt religion, and destroy piety ; secondly, the obstinacy 
with which he had behaved, and the diabolical pride with 
which he had rejected all admonitions ; and thirdly, the 
haughtiness with which he still continued to assert his 
abominations. And in order to stimulate the ministers of 
Basle still more against him, he mentioned that Servetus 
had not hesitated to assert that CEcolampadius and Capito, 
the former ministers of that city, had partaken in his 
opinions.f In fact Servetus had affirmed, in his examination 
of the 23rd of August, that Capito had assented to his 
doctrines, and, at first, CEcolampadius also ; but that the 

to put Servetus to death ! To be sure, in the following page he translates the 
word spero, in the passage just quoted, by think (er meine Servet werde 
am Leben gestraft werden). But the context will not allow us to take spero 
here in any other than its ordinary sense of hoping. And, indeed, Dr. Henry 
seems to have thought so himself ; for, he adds, by way of comment on Calvin's 
words: " Characteristisch, er muss in der Hitze gleich sein Feuer von sich 
werfen ;" a remark that would have no meaning had Calvin only said, u I expect 
that Servetus will be capitally condemned." 

* Mosheim, Neue Nachrichten, p. 78. f Calvin to Sulzer, Ep. 156. 



CHAP. X.] 



SERVETUS ACCUSES CALYIN. 



341 



latter had subsequently changed his opinion. Bucer, he said, 
had always been against him; and he had consulted only 
these three. 

Meanwhile Servetus made a last effort to procure his 
liberation, and endeavoured to turn the tables upon Calvin 
by addressing a memorial to the council in which he 
denounced him as a false accuser, a persecutor, and a heretic ; 
and demanded that he should be imprisoned, and made sub- 
ject to the poena talionis if his accusation proved unfounded.* 
It was accompanied with another, in which he requested that 
Calvin should be interrogated as to the share he had had in 
procuring his imprisonment and trial at Vienne. He like- 
wise required that Calvin's estate should be handed over to 
him as a compensation for that which he had lost by his 
means. The council refused to receive these papers, or to 
grant an audience, as Servetus had requested. On the 10th 
of October he addressed another letter to the council, in 
which he complained bitterly of the miseries which he 
suffered in prison ; but this was also disregarded. 

The council of Geneva had consulted the magistrates, as 
well as the churches, of Zurich, Berne, Basle, and Sehaff- 
hausen, on the case of Servetus. They all replied that they 
had referred the matter to their clergy ; but the magistrates 
of Zurich and Berne added, on their own parts, a few words, 
in which they exhorted the Genevese council to firmness and 
severity. We learn from a letter of Haller's to Bullinger, 
dated on the 19th of October, 1553, that by command of the 
council of Berne, he had laid before them, in separate pro- 
positions, some of the chief errors of Servetus ; at which 
they showed so much indignation that, had he been a 
prisoner of theirs, he doubted not but they would have 

* This paper concluded as follows : " Je vous demande justice, Messeigneurs, 
justice, justice, justice ! — Faict en vos prisons de Geneve, le 22 de Septembre, 
1553. Michael Servetus en sa, cause propre." — P. Henry, iii., Beil. iii. 71, 
et seq. 



342 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. X. 



burnt him. * Calvin also says, in a letter to Farel, + that 
the Genevese council had been much stimulated by the 
letter from that of Berne. Yet it does not appear to have 
contained any direct verdict of death.J 

But in such a matter the opinion of the churches is more 
important. Their answers were received in the course of 
October ; but though they condemned the heresies and 
blasphemies of Servetus in the strongest possible terms, 
their sentiments as to his punishment were expressed in the 
most cautious and guarded language, and which would 
admit the interpretation of perpetual imprisonment as well 
as that of death. The letter from Zurich, of which that from 
Schaffhausen was little more than an echo, was, in the opinion 
of Calvin himself, § the most severe of all ; for which reason 
as well as because it is selected by himself as a specimen of 
the rest, in his tract against Servetus, that part of it which 
relates to the mode of punishment is subjoined. " In what 
manner," say the ministers of Zurich, " your honourable 
council should coerce a man who revives heresies long ago 
refuted and condemned by the church on the authority of 
Scripture, who impugns the firm and primary principles of 
our faith, and in so doing insults both God and his saints, 
we leave it to your prudence to consider." Then, after 
adverting to his work, " On the errors of the Trinity," and 
his " Restitution of Christianity," they proceed to say : 
" We think much faith and diligence are needful to stem 
this evil, especially as our churches are in bad repute among 

* See Mosheim, Neue Nachrickten, p. 78. + Ep. 161. 

% " Les magistrats de Berne manderent aussi qu'ils avoient consultes leurs 
theologiens, et prierent le conseil de Geneve d'empecher le progres des erreurs. 
Vous prions, disent-ils, comme ne doutons point a, ce etre enclins, de toujours 
tenir main que les erreurs et sectes, comme les elites sont, ou semblables, ne 
soient semees en l'Eglise de Jesus Christ, nostre seul Sauveur, et par ce garderez 
de trouble et adversite, et sa gloire avancerez et augmenterez." — Biblioiheque 
Anglaise, ii. 166. Where also will be found the answer of the Zurich 
magistrates, p. 163. § See Calvin's Letter to Farel, Ep. 161. 



chap, x.] LETTERS OF THE SWISS CHURCHES. 



343 



foreigners, as heretical, and favourers of heretics. But now 
the holy providence of God hath offered you an opportunity 
of purging both yourselves and us from so odious a suspicion, 
provided you be vigilant, and take due care that the contagion 
of this poison spread no farther by means of this man, as we 
doubt not you will. May the Lord Jesus Christ add wisdom 
and fortitude to your piety, and put you into the right way 
of performing his will, to the glory of his name, and to the 
preservation of the true faith, and of the church." * 

Minus Celsus, whose work against the putting of heretics 
to death, was published in the year 1577, declares that he 
had read the letters of the Swiss churches attentively, and 
that he could not find a single word about shedding Servetus' s 
blood. f De la Roche, Mosheim, and others, have subse- 
quently expressed the same opinion ; and even Haller, the 
minister of Berne, who, as we have seen, took an active part 
in these proceedings, admits in his " Diary" that a verdict of 
death cannot be plainly inferred from all of them.f But 
Bullinger's letter to Beza, of the 30th of August, an extract 
from which has been already given, § as well as his conduct 
after the execution of Servetus, can leave no doubt as to his 
sentiments at least, and shows that the Genevese magistrates 
did not misinterpret the epistle of the Zurich church. || The 
question, however, as to the real meaning of the letters, so 
far as it regards Calvin personally, is of little importance. 

* Calvini, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 159. 

+ See Mini Celsi Senensis Disputatio, Christlingse, 1577, p. 98. The letters 
are in Calvin, Epp. et JResp., Epp. 158, 159, 160, and 163. 

+ Mus.Helv., ii. 1 02. § See p. 338. Compare his letter to Calvin, Ep. 157. 

|| Dr. Henry (iii. 187) rather disingenuously infers that the answers of the 
Swiss churches sanctioned capital punishment, because the Helvetic confession 
prescribed it in cases of blasphemy. The passage which he quotes appears only 
in the second confession, published in 1566, and therefore long after the affair of 
Servetus ; by which, indeed, it might have been suggested. (See Ruchat, vii. 272.) 
In the first Helvetic confession, we find only that the magistrate should " punish 
and exterminate all blasphemy," — not blasphemers. (Ruchat, iv. 73.) At Zurich, 
however, they seem never to have inflicted capital punishment except heresy had 
been accompanied with perjury and sedition. See Minus Celsus, Ibid., p. 224. 



344 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. x. 



The appeal to the Swiss churches was quite an affair of the 
council's, and made in order to remove their own scruples. 
Calvin, as we have seen, had none. He had not only not 
advised, but had actually opposed, the appeal. 

The opinions of the other churches were still less decisive 
than that of Zurich, and the ambiguous terms iu which they 
were expressed occasioned considerable embarrassment at 
Geneva. The ordinary council felt unwilling to pronounce 
sentence on Servetus, without the concurrence of the council 
of Sixty, which was accordingly summoned. In this assembly 
opinions were much divided, and the debate lasted for 
three entire days. Some were for banishment for life, 
others for perpetual imprisonment ; but the majority were for 
death by fire, unless the prisoner made an unreserved recan- 
tation. When Ami Perrin, then captain-general and first 
syndic, who had hitherto countenanced Servetus, perceived, 
at the very beginning of the debate, that the council inclined 
towards a sentence of death, he said that he would not be a 
partaker in his blood, and quitted the senate-house, together 
with some others.* It seems to have been pretty manifest, 
from the first, what the decision would be ; for in a letter 
to Bullinger, dated on the 25th of October, Calvin says : 
"Nothing is yet decided concerning Servetus, but I con- 
jecture that the council will give judgment to-morrow, and 
that on the next day he will be led to execution.^ And we 
learn from another letter of Calvin's to Far el, dated on the 
following day, that sentence had been pronounced as he had 
anticipated, in spite of the efforts of Perrin; who, after 
absenting himself from the council for three days, on pre- 
tence of illness, appeared at the last hour, and endeavoured 
to rescue Servetus, by moving that the case should be 

* The tract, De Morte Serveti, quoted by P. Henry, iii. 187. 
-f* Ep. 162. With a strange inconsistency Calvin immediately subjoins : 
" Matters do not improve in France. They do not spare blood wherever there 
is an opportunity for cruelty. They will shortly burn three at Dijon, unless 
it be already done ! " — He could see the mote in his brother's eye. 



CHAP. X.] 



SERYETUS CONDEMNED. 



345 



referred to the council of Two Hundred. But the prisoner 
was condemned without a division.* 

By the old imperial laws of Geneva, which still remained 
unrepealed, death by fire was the punishment of heresy. 
The legal labours of Calvin had left that barbarous statute 
unreformed. We have already seen from his letter to Farel, 
communicating the apprehension of Servetus, that though 
he had desired the Spaniard's death, he had expressed a 
wish that the mode of it should be alleviated ; and from the 
letter to the same person just quoted, it would appear that 
he had really made some efforts to effect that object, but 
that these had been fruitless, for some reason which he 
would explain to Far el when they met. The world, therefore, 
will most probably for ever remain in ignorance of the 
nature of Calvin's exertions on this occasion, and of the 
causes which nullified his powerful influence in so merciful 
and praiseworthy an undertaking. Meanwhile, he is entitled 
to the credit of having made the attempt : though we cannot 
help remarking another variation between this letter and 
the account which he gives of his own conduct in the 
" Refutatio ;" in which he says, that after the conviction 
of Servetus, he had not uttered a single word about his 
punishment, f 

The 27th of October was appointed for the execution oi 
Servetus, and on the morning of that day he requested to 
have an interview with Calvin. The latter repaired to his 
dungeon, accompanied by two members of the council. The 
scene which followed is taken from Calvin's own narrative. 
On one of the councillors asking Servetus what he wanted, 
he replied that he wished to beg Calvin's mercy. { Hereupon 
the latter protested that he had never pursued any private 

* Ep. 161. 

t " Not only will all good men be my witnesses that from the time he was 
convicted I uttered not a single word concerning his punishment, but all bad 
ones have my permission to produce any, if they can." — Ref. Serveti, p. 511, A. 
X "Qu'il me vouloit crier merci." — Opuse. Fr., apvd P. Henry, iii. 194. 



346 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



offence. He reminded Mm that sixteen years before he had 
used all his endeavours, even at the risk of his life, to 
reclaim him, and reconcile him with the faithful; that he 
had afterwards exhorted him by letters ; in short that he had 
shown him all possible kindness, till Servetus, taking offence 
at some of his free and holy admonitions, had attacked him 
with rabid fury. Calvin then said, that dropping all that 
concerned himself personally, he begged him rather to ask 
mercy of God, whom he had so atrociously blasphemed. 
"When I perceived," continues Calvin, "that my advice 
and exhortations were of no avail, I was not willing to be 
wiser than my Master allows ; and following the rule of 
St. Paul, departed from a self- condemned heretic, who bore 
his mark and reprobation in his heart."* 

It being now apparent that Servetus would not retract, he 
was brought before the council, and his sentence was read to 
him with the customary formalities, f The main grounds of 
his condemnation therein stated are, his book on the Trinity, 
published at Hagenau, his "Restitution of Christianity," 
published at Vienne, and his obstinate perseverance in 
his errors. It concludes as follows : — " We condemn you, 
Michael Servetus, to be bound, and led to Champel, where 
you are to be fastened to a stake and burnt alive, together 
with your book, as well the printed one as the manuscript, 
till your body be reduced to ashes ; and thus shall you finish 
your days, to be an example to others who would commit 
the like. And we charge our lieutenant to see that this our 
present sentence be carried into execution." His gold chain 
and other property were given to the hospital. 

On hearing this dreadful sentence, Servetus was struck 
with horror and amazement. He entreated the magistrates 
that he might perish by the sword, lest the greatness of his 

* Refutatio Serveti, Opera, viii. 511, A.' 
+ This sentence, which is somewhat long, will be found in the Bibliotheque 
Anglaise, ii. 180 ; Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, p. 444, and in P. Henry, iii., 
Beil. iii. 



Chap, x.] 



EXECUTION OF SERVETUS. 



347 



torment should drive him to desperation, and cause him to 
lose his soul. He protested, that, if he had sinned, it had 
been unwittingly, and that his desire had always been to 
promote God's glory,* When he found that all his supplica- 
tions were fruitless, he fell into a kind of stupor, broken at 
intervals by deep groans and frantic cries for mercy, f 

Calvin had written to Farel requesting him to come to 
Geneva, and attend upon Servetus in his last moments ; an 
office which could not well be undertaken by any of the 
Genevese clergy, who had condemned him. Farel obeyed 
this summons, and arrived in Geneva time enough to hear 
the sentence pronounced. He accompanied the unhappy 
Spaniard to the stake, and has recorded his last moments in 
a letter to Ambrose Blaarer. 

A little way from the city of Geneva rises a gentle but 
extended eminence, called Champey, or Champel, the place 
appointed for the execution of Servetus. Early in the morn- 
ing of the 27th of October, he was led from prison to undergo 
his doom. As the procession slowly ascended the hill, the 
stake appeared in sight, though partly hidden by the oak 
branches which had been heaped around it, still bearing their 
autumnal leaves. A crowd had gathered round the spot where 
he was to undergo his sentence, and to escape from his earthly 
judges to the presence of a higher and infallible tribunal. 
Arrived at the summit of the hill, he fell on the earth in an 
attitude of prayer; and while he lay absorbed in his devo- 
tions, Farel thus addressed the assembled multitude : " See," 
said he, "the power of Satan, when he hath once gotten 
possession of us ! This man is particularly learned, and it 
may be that he thought he was doing right ; but now the 
devil hath him. Beware, lest the same thing happen to 
yourselves ! 33 J 

Farel, who had been with Servetus since seven o'clock in 

* Be Morte Serveti, apud P. Henry, iii. 196. 
t Calvin himself relates this circumstance, Refutatio, &c, Opera, viii. 523, A. 
J Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, ii. 119. 



348 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. X. 



the morning, had not ceased exhorting him to acknowledge 
his errors ; but so far was he from doing this, that he per- 
sisted in saying that he suffered unjustly, that he was led as 
a victim to the slaughter ; at the same time beseeching God 
to have mercy on his accusers.* At last Farel said: "Do 
you, who are so great a sinner, attempt to justify yourself ? 
I had determined to accompany you till your last breath, 
and to exhort all to pray for you, in the hope that you would 
edify the people ; but if you continue to speak as you do, I 
will resign you to the judgment of God, and abide with you 
no longer." Hereupon, continues Farel, he was silent, and 
spoke not again in the same manner, f 

When Servetus arose from his devotions, Farel exhorted 
him to address the people ; but sighs and groans almost 
choked his utterance, and all that he could utter was, " Oh, 
God ! Oh, God ! " When Farel asked him if he had nothing 
else to say? he replied, "What can I speak of but of 
God?" J Farel now told him, that if he had a wife or a 
child, and wished to make his will, there was a notary 
present ; but to this suggestion Servetus made no answer. 
At a hint of FareFs, he requested the assembled multitude 
to pray for him ; but to the last moment he could not be 
induced to address Christ as the eternal son of God. § 

About midday, Servetus was led to the stake. Before 
it lay a large block of wood on which he was to sit. An 
iron chain encompassed his body, and held him to the stake ; 
his neck was fastened to it by a strong cord, which encircled 
it several times. On his head was placed a crown of plaited 
straw and leaves, strewed with sulphur to assist in suffocating 
him. At his girdle were suspended both his printed books, 
and the manuscript which he had sent to Calvin — the causes 
of his miserable end. Servetus begged the executioner to 
put him quickly out of his misery. But the fellow, either 

* Farel to Blaarer, apud P. Henry, iii., Beil. iii. 72, from Zurich MS. 
f Ibid. f De Morte Serveti, apud P. Henry, iii. 199. § Ibid. 



CHAP. X.] 



CHAKACTER OF SERVETUS. 



349 



from accident or design, had not been properly instructed in 
his duty, and had collected a heap of green wood. When 
the fire was kindled, Servetus uttered such a piercing shriek, 
that the crowd fell back with a shudder. Some, more 
humane than the authorities, ran and threw in faggots : 
nevertheless his sufferings lasted about half an hour. Just 
before he expired, he cried with a terrible voice : " Jesus, 
thou son of the eternal God, have mercy upon me ! 33 thus 
persisting in his heresy to his latest breath.* 

It is related in the book which passes under the name of 
" Vaticanus" that Bernardin Ochino, the celebrated preacher, 
on his return from England, arrived in Geneva the day 
following the execution ; and on hearing it related, expressed 
so much horror and indignation, as to give rise to the hatred 
with which Calvin ever afterwards pursued him.f The 
scene had such an effect upon Farel himself, that he had not 
strength to relate it to Calvin, but returned at once to 
Neufchatel without seeing him. % 

In person Servetus was of middling size, thin and pale ; 
his eyes beaming with thought and intelligence, but mingled 
with an expression of melancholy and fanaticism. His 
memory, says Mosheim, was tenacious, his imagination in- 
exhaustible, his wit great, his industry wonderful, his love of 
learning ardent ; but he had not sufficient understanding to 
use these advantages wisely. His discoveries, both in religion 
and science; his cleverness in combating the opinions of 
others ; his happy emendations of Ptolemy ; his voluminous 
and eloquent writings ; his ability to seize and present a 
doctrine in many points of view ; and his deep thoughts on 
some of the passages of Scripture, testify the strength and 
fruitfulness of his imagination : his love for prediction and 

* De Morte Serveti, apud P. Henry, iii. 200. 
+ See Trechsel, Antitr., ii. 110, note. 
J Gaberel, Calvin a Geneve, p. 231. The long scene which Dr. Henry- 
paints between Calvin and Farel, on the evening of Servetus's execution, seems 
drawn from imagination. 



350 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



astrology; his idea of the double sense of Scripture and 
prophecy ; his groundless interpretations of the prophets, 
and of the Apocalypse, as well as his strange and un- 
reasonable explanations of some parts of religion, betray the 
weakness of his understanding. But nothing can show this 
more than his fanaticism; which was so fostered by pride 
and self-love, that he looked upon himself as destined by 
Providence to restore the Church.* 

Such a character presents the greatest possible contrast to 
that of Calvin, whose strong understanding and practical 
turn of mind, led him, perhaps, too far the other way, and 
caused him almost to analyse scriptural truth into a logical 
formula. The difference in the minds of the two men is 
strikingly exemplified in their respective styles. Clear, 
concise, and forcible, Calvin appeals only to the understanding 
of his reader ; diffuse, fanciful, and frequently obscure, 
Servetus seeks rather to excite his enthusiasm. But for his 
fanaticism, which gave a wrong direction to his powers, 
Servetus would probably have left a great name in science 
for discoveries which the positive mind of Calvin could never 
have achieved. Besides his theory of the circulation of the 
blood, he had also attempted to fix the seat of the mind, and 
to distinguish the principles of animal and vegetable life. 
" Another of his theories/'' says a late writer, — " the life is 
in the blood, — has been the subject of much discussion 
among the friends and the opponents of John Hunter. 
There certainly is a very great obscurity in all the opinions 
that Servetus advanced : they are so blended with his 
religious notions, that they are sometimes rendered unin- 
telligible. Still we perceive an original mode of thinking 
pervades each idea, and much material for reasoning is 
constantly prepared to us : and when we remember that this 
extraordinary man gave the world the first clear description 
of the circulation of the blood seventy-five years before our 

* See Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, B. ii., § 36. 



CHAP. X.] 



CHARACTEK OF SERVETUS. 



351 



immortal Harvey published the result of his inquiries, it is 
but justice that his other theories, which have been almost 
unknown, should again be brought forward." * 

That according to the doctors of the Church, both Roman 
Catholic and Protestant, the tenets of Servetus were 
unorthodox, and his mode of maintaining them blasphemous, 
cannot admit of a doubt. He nevertheless entertained a 
strong sense of religion, and was disposed to seek the truth, 
but was led astray by pride and fanaticism. A mere 
unbeliever would not have maintained his opinions so firmly 
throughout his life, and at last have sealed them with his 
blood. His works abound with ardent expressions of 
devotion : f but it is possible that he may have been as much 
actuated in his conduct by the desire of becoming noted as 
a Reformer, as by any real piety. It does not belong to this 
work to give any detailed account of his religious notions, 
which, indeed, are frequently obscure and unintelligible. 
They were founded on a philosophical pantheism, which, 
whilst he did not reject the divinity of Christ, led him to 
deny his co-eternity with the Father, and to regard Trinita- 
rians, whom he called Tritheists, as no better than atheists. 
They who desire to be further acquainted with his tenets 
will find an account of them at the end of Calvin's tract 
against him ; in the third book of Mosheim's History of 

* The unnoticed Theories of Servetus, by Dr. Sigmond, Introd., p. 16. 
t He [concludes the preface to his Be Trinitate Divind, with the following 
prayer : " 0 Christ Jesus, Son of God, thou who, sent to us from heaven, 
makest visible in thyself the revealed deity, disclose thyself to thy servant, that 
so great a manifestation may be truly understood. Bestow upon me now thy 
good spirit and thy efficacious word ; guide my mind and my pen so that I may 
be able to describe the glory of thy divinity, and to express the true faith 
concerning thee. This is thy cause, explaining thy glory from the Father, and 
the glory of thy Spirit, which, by a certain divine impulse, it occurred to me to 
treat of, when I was solicitous for thy truth. I treated of it before, and am 
now again compelled to do so : for the time is complete, as I shall now show to 
all the pious, both from the certitude of the thing itself, and from the manifest 
signs of the times. Thou hast taught us not to hide our light; and woe be to 
me unless I evangelise. It concerns the common cause of all Christians, to 
which we are all bound." 



352 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



Servetus ; and in the appendix to the third volume of his 
life, by Dr. P. Henry. The charges of immorality brought 
against him by Calvin were altogether unfounded. 

Previously to the execution of Servetus, a few voices had 
been raised in his favour. David George, or Joris, who 
afterwards became noted as the founder of an Anabaptist 
sect, but who was then residing at Basle, under the assumed 
name of John von Bruck, and who was much respected at 
that time by the Reformed churches, wrote to the govern- 
ments of the different towns to avert the fate of Servetus. 
He may possibly have beheld in him a brother Anabaptist, 
and his arguments for toleration may not have been altogether 
disinterested; but that circumstance will not strip them 
of their eternal truth. Gribaldo, an Italian jurisconsult, 
residing at Geneva, and whom we shall again have occasion 
to mention in the course of this narrative, also spoke in 
favour of Servetus.* But while his fate remained undecided, 
this feeling was only feebly manifested. The final decision 
of the Genevese magistrates was followed almost immediately 
by the execution of their prisoner; and there was hardly 
time, even in Geneva itself, to express an opinion upon an 
act whose very atrocity might have led people to think that 
it would never be committed. But the actual tidings of his 
fate produced an immediate, unequivocal, and, out of the 
clerical circles, pretty general manifestation of disapproval 
and aversion.f The more reflecting portion of the public 
condemned the act, not only for its atrocity, but for its 
impolicy. They perceived that such a proceeding on the 
part of a Reformed church, would only strengthen the 
cause of the Papists, and afford a sanction to their blood- 
thirsty persecutions.^ The general feeling manifested itself 

* P. Henry, iii. 182, et seq. 

f "Scarce, therefore, had the ashes of that unhappy wretch grown cold, 
when people began to agitate the question respecting, the punishment of 
heretics." — Beza, Vita Calv., anno 1553. 

t "Which punishment, though he richly deserved it, gave rise to much 



chap.x.] INDIGNATION AT CALVIN^ CONDUCT. 353 

with more heat and violence. Libels appeared against the 
council in prose and verse ; and the Italian refugees were 
particularly active in composing and circulating these pro- 
ductions.* It was said that an inquisition of a new kind 
had been erected; that Geneva had its Pope as well as 
Rome ; that Christ himself would have been crucified had he 
come thither. Even some of Calvin's personal friends could 
not refrain from expressing their disapprobation. Meanwhile, 
in reply to these attacks, the pulpits of Geneva resounded 
with denunciations of Servetus and his doctrines ; and Calvin 
was at first inclined to take no other notice of the assaults 
of the pamphleteers. > He seems to have felt the difficulty 
and invidiousness of justifying his own act in a formal publi- 
cation ; and to have shrunk from the task till urged to it by 
the increasing voice of public indignation, and the earnest 
exhortations of Bullinger. ^ In his answer to Baudouin, he 
declares that he should never have entered upon the subject 
but for Bullinger's advice ; and we find the latter, in a letter 
to Calvin, of the 13th of December, 1553, urging him to 
describe Servetus and his last moments in such a manner 
that, according to the style of those days, " all might abhor 
the beast." f 

Calvin was now to justify and give his sanction to the 
capital punishment of heretics. This was an important step, 
but it was one which could no longer be delayed. J Early in 

dispute ; some defending it as proper, whilst others thought that such a precedent 
' "should not have been established in the church, lest it should give further 
occasion to the Papists of cruelly burning the faithful ; and because even the 
ancients held that heretics were to be confuted by Scripture, and not by 
punishments." — Haller's Diary, 1553, Mus. Helv., ii. 102. 

* Trechsel, Antitr., i. 268. A specimen of one of these poems, by a Sicilian, 
named Camillo Renato, consisting of between eight hundred and nine hundred 
Latin hexameters, entitled "In I. Calvinum, de injusto M. Serveti Incendio," will- 
be found in Trechsel, Beil. iv. 

f See Calvin, Responsio ad Balduini Convicia, Opera, viii. 317, A., Amst. ed., 
and compare Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 166. 

X " The urgent necessity I have mentioned compels me now at least to enter 
on a task that should have been performed sooner; especially as the punishment 

A A 



354 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. X. 



the year 1554 appeared his "Declaration pour maintenir la 
vraie Foi touchant la Trinite contre les Erreurs de M. Servet" 
&c. ; which was shortly afterwards followed by a Latin 
version, from his own hand, bearing the title of " Fidelis 
Eocpositio Errorum M. Serveti, et brevis eorundem Refutatio 
ubi docetur jure Gladii coercendos esse Hareticos" 

This work is remarkable only for the bitter spirit in 
which Calvin attacks a man whom he had sent to his last 
account, and for the atrocious way in which he advocates 
the general principle laid down in it. That he may not 
seem to sanction the popish fires, he maintains that the 
punishment of heretics belongs only to those who hold the 
true doctrine, * that is, to himself and his followers ; thus 
claiming a monopoly of persecution. This claim is enforced 
by a very clear and powerful argumentum ad hominem ; 
namely, that whosoever should dispute his opinions on the 
point, would himself become obnoxious to a charge of 
blasphemy, and thus be in danger of lighting his own pyre, 
The whole passage, for its atrocity, deserves to be inserted. 
u Whoever," he says, " shall now contend that it is unjust 
to put heretics and blasphemers to death, will knowingly 
and willingly incur their very guilt. This is not laid down 
on human authority : it is God himself who speaks, and 
prescribes a perpetual rule for his church. It is not in vain 
that he banishes all those human affections which soften our 
hearts ; that he commands paternal love, and all benevolent 
feelings between brothers, relations, and friends, to cease; 
in a word, that he almost deprives men of their nature, in 
order that nothing may hinder their holy zeal. Why is so 
implacable a severity exacted, but that we may know that 
God is defrauded of his honour, unless the piety that is due 

lately inflicted in this city on the very author of the sect has occasioned 
discussions of a new kind." — Refutatio, &c, Opera, viii. 510, B. 

* " Ut compertae veritati succedat demum pcenarum sanctio." — Ibid., viii. 
516, A. 



chap, x.] BOOK ON THE PUNISHMENT OF HERETICS. 



355 



to him be preferred to all human duties ; and that, when his 
glory is to be asserted, humanity must be almost obliterated 
from our memories. " * It would be superfluous at the 
present day to examine the reasoning by which Calvin 
attempts to support these monstrous sentiments. Servetus 
called him a Jew for entertaining them, and his line of 
argument seems to justify the name. Nearly all his autho- 
rities are drawn from the Old Testament ; those which 
he attempts to bring from the New are of course utter 
failures. 

Calvin's personal defence in this tract is a question at once 
more difficult, and more interesting. Here we have to 
consider his individual share in procuring the death of 
Servetus; and, if culpable at all, how far his guilt extends. 

Calvin boldly avows his share in the proceedings at Geneva;f 
and indeed it was too notorious to be denied, even had he been 
so inclined. Since, then, he acknowledges his intention, in 
which the guilt, if any, lies, it is little to the purpose to 
inquire what power he had to carry it into effect. Yet, as 
some modern writers have tried to extenuate his conduct on 
the ground that he had at that time but little influence, it 
may be as well to state that this assertion does not appear to 
be borne out by facts. It is true that Perrin and the Patriot 
party, during that and the following year, made a stronger 
opposition to Calvin than they were able either before or 
subsequently to offer. But Perrin's influence lay chiefly in 
the council of Two Hundred ; before whom, as we have seen, 
the case of Servetus was not permitted to be brought. In 
the ordinary council Calvin was still predominant, and his 
power over the life of Servetus is acknowledged by himself in 
several passages of his tract. £ 

* Refutatio, Opera, viii. 516, A. 
f See the Refutatio, &c, Opera, viii. 517, A.; also, Calvin to Sultzer, Ep. 156. 
% The avowal is particularly striking in the French edition : " Ce nf est 
assez qu'on sache que je ne 1' ay point persecute si mortellement qu'il ne luy fut 
loysible de racheter sa vie en donnant quelque signe de niodestie." — Bibliotheque 

A A 2 



356 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. X. 



Calvin has been often reproached with his letter to Farel 
in 1546, in which he expresses his determination to pnt 
Servetus to death, if he should ever come to Geneva. But 
the bold line of defence adopted by Calvin renders it in reality 
of little importance, except for the change of tone it exhibits 
the moment that the quarrel becomes personal, and for the 
contrast which it presents with the language of another letter 
that he wrote to Frellon on the same day. It would be 
idle to charge a man who avows and justifies an act with 
having entertained the idea of committing it. 

The history of this sad affair can leave no doubt that Calvin 
desired, and was the main instrument in bringing about, the 
death of Servetus; but it is possible that he endeavoured to 
mitigate the manner of it. Turrettin affirms that Calvin, 
with the rest of the pastors, dissuaded the council from 
burning Servetus ; * but he does not give any authority 
for this statement, nor does it appear to be confirmed by 
the Registers of Geneva, nor by any other public document. 
Yet it is, perhaps, to some such endeavour that a passage in 
Calvin's tract against Servetus refers, in which he says that 
whatever was done by the council is ascribed to him ; f 
for it would be inconsistent not only with several other 
passages in that tract, but with the whole spirit of his 
defence, to think that he wished to make the council 
responsible for the mere execution, as well as for the 
mode of it. 

It is impossible at the present day to justify Calvin on 

Anglaise, ii. ] 32. This passage alone sufficiently refutes M. Rilliet's assertion 
(in his " Relation du Proces Criminel" &c.) that Calvin had no influence on the 
trial of Servetus. Yet Dr. Henry adopts it ; and to support it, quotes from 
Calvin's works a passage wholly irrelevant. (Leben Calvins, hi., Beil. hi., p. 50, 
note). Even he, however, cannot digest Rilliet's absurd argument that Servetus 
was not executed as a blasphemer, or enemy of Calvin's, but for sedition ; and 
has thought it worth while to spend some pages in refuting it. (See the same 
Beilage). 

* See his Institutio Theologies Elencticce, hi. 374. 
f Refutatio Serveti, Opera, vih\ 511, A. 



chap, x.] GROUNDS OF CALVIN'S DEFENCE. 357 

his own grounds,, and recourse is therefore had to other 
arguments. The chief of these are drawn from the manners 
of the time, and from the predominant influence of the 
Roman Catholic principle. 

To say that Calvin was not in advance of his age is to 
pay but a poor tribute to so eminent a Reformer. Such 
reasoners should rather affirm that he appears to have been 
behind it; for, as we have seen, a great many voices were 
raised to protest against his act. But, as Mosheim observes,* 
it is not the fact that Calvin was so ignorant of his duty 
towards his erring brethren. In the earlier editions of his 
"Institutes/' passages breathing a mild and tolerant spirit 
show that he had early arrived at the conviction that 
heretics should not be punished by death. The following 
quotation from one of these is given in the work of Minus 
Celsus : — " Wherefore though it be not lawful, on account 
of ecclesiastical discipline, to live familiarly with excom- 
municated persons, yet we should strive by all possible 
means, by exhortation and teaching, by clemency and 
kindness, and by our prayers to God, that they may be 
converted to better thoughts, and return to the bosom of the 
Church. Nor are these only to be so treated, but also Turks 
and Saracens, and the rest of the enemies of true religion. 
So little to be approved of are the methods by which many 
have hitherto endeavoured to drive them to our faith; by 
interdicting them from fire and water and the other elements ; 
by denying them the common offices of humanity ; and by 
pursuing them with the sword." f This and other passages 
were much altered in later editions ; but even now several 
remain which stand in glaring contrast with the tenets 

* Geschichte Servets, B. ii., § 35. 
f This passage is now read differently in Institutio, iv. 12, § 10. See Mini 
Celsi Senensis Disputatio, p. 98. Liebe, also, who had seen the edition of the 
Institutio published at Strasburgh, in 1539, says in his Diatribe de Pseudonymid 
I. Calvini, (p. 32), that it contained many passages in favour of treating heretics 
mildly, which were expunged from the later editions. 



358 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. x. 



maintained in the tract against Servetus. What conld have 
induced Calvin to change these opinions ? Is it possible that 
a man so acute, and so little obnoxious to the charge of 
fickleness and inconstancy, should have been led by the 
growth of reason and experience to reject such truly 
christian sentiments as ill-formed and immature ? Or was 
he influenced by other motives that took his reason prisoner? 

The argument that Calvin was guided by the Roman 
Catholic principle in which he had been brought up, and 
which he saw in daily operation, stands on much the same 
grounds, and is liable to the same objections, as the preceding 
one. Of the fact, indeed, of his having adopted that principle 
there can be no doubt. But we may be sure that Calvin 
himself would have rejected, with indignation and horror, 
the imputation that he was under the influence of a church 
which he regarded as Belial and Antichrist, and of 
whose principles he sought not how much he could retain, 
but how much he could reject : and so in his tract he 
expressly distinguishes his cause from the Roman Catholic. 
Yet some of his modern defenders would make that church 
wholly responsible for his conduct on this occasion. * The 
horrible persecutions of his brethren which were constantly 
taking place, were calculated, one would think, to excite and 
keep alive Calvin's horror for that bloody principle ; though 
Dr. Henry has used this argument the other way, and aflirms, 
that when such dreadful murders of the Protestant martyrs 
were daily heard of in France, Italy, and Spain, it must have 
appeared ridiculous to let such a man as Servetus live; and 
that we can only wonder at the tranquillity of his judges 
in such dreadful times ! f On the value of such a motive 
the reader must decide. 

* " lhr princip also ist es, das noch hier in dem Genfer Rath triumphirt ; 
und sie sind fiir diese That verantwortlich, dies Blut schreit auf gegen sie." — 
P. Henry, iii. 208. See, also, Scott, Continuation of Milner, hi. 436. 

•f* "Hierzu kommt dass man taglich von furchtbaren Ermordungen der 
heiligen Bekenner in Frankreich, Itahen, und Spanien horte, so dass es lacher- 



\ 




chap, x.] CAL YIN JUSTIFIED BY MELANCTHON, ETC. 359 

The most plausible apology for Calvin is, perhaps, to be 
found in the opinions of his brother theologians. We have 
already quoted Bullinger's before the execution of Servetus ; 
and he retained it afterwards.* Peter Martyr, in a letter to 
the Poles who had embraced the gospel, dated the 14th of 
February, 1556, vindicated the conduct of the Genevese 
magistrates, t But the most important approval is that of 
Melancthon, unequivocally pronounced in a letter to Calvin, 
acknowledging the receipt of his book against Servetus, and 
dated the 14th of October, 1554. In this Melancthon says : 
9 I have read your tract in which you lucidly refute the 
horrid blasphemies of Servetus, and give thanks to the Son 
of God, who was the arbiter of your contest. The Church 
owes you her gratitude both now and hereafter. I quite 
agree in your opinion, and moreover assert that your magis- 
trates acted with perfect justice in putting the blasphemer 
to death after a regular trial." % He repeats the same 
opinion in a letter to Bullinger. 

Calvin is entitled to all the weight of these opinions in his 
favour, by which he seems almost to stand acquitted. It 
must, however, be observed, that they relate only to the 
trial and execution of Servetus at Geneva, which Calvin 
avowed : but, for a full appreciation of his conduct and 
motives, there still remains to be considered the part he took 
in handing over Servetus to the authorities of Yienne, which 
he denied. The eminent theologians, whose opinions have 
been adduced, might recognise the salutary effect of the 
formal trial and condemnation of an obstinate heretic by 
a Reformed tribunal, and yet have objected to his being 

lich scheinen konnte einen solchen Menschen leben zu lassen, und man wahrlich 
in jener wilden Zeit die Ruhe der Richter bewundern muss." — Leben Calvins, 
iii. 157. 

* Calvin, JEJpp. et Eesp., Ep. 173. f Trechsel, i. 267, Zusdtze. 

% Calvin, Epp. et Eesp., Epp. 187 and 214. Melancthon held the same 
opinion in the case of Campanus. Luther was for treating him with contempt ; 
but Melancthon thought he should be hung on a lofty gallows, and wrote to the 
sovereign to that effect, (Luther, Tischreden, apud Schlosser, Leben JBezas, p. 52). 



360 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. X. 



clandestinely betrayed into the hands of a Roman Catholic 
one. The two cases stand on grounds perfectly distinct; 
though one may serve by way of comment on the other. 
The main cause that weighed with Bullinger was the 
beneficial effect which such a proceeding would have on the 
Reformed churches, which were accused of abetting heresy. * 
Martyr and Melancthon advert to a formal trial and con- 
demnation ; and the sentence of the Genevese magistrates 
on Servetus affirms that he was to be "an example to 
others." But his execution at Vienne would have passed 
almost unnoticed. He would have been confounded with 
the numerous martyrs to Calvin's own principles ; and so 
neither God's honour would have been consulted, nor the 
interests of the Reformed Church advanced ; but rather, on 
the contrary, injured, by the sanction thus given by Calvin 
to the blood-thirsty persecutions of the Papists. 

But Calvin denied having betrayed Servetus, and his denial 
must therefore be examined. The following is a literal 
translation of it : " But let the right of the magistrates be 
what it may, I am not thereby released from the personal 
invidiousness with which I am sore oppressed by many ; who 
affirm that nothing was more unbecoming than that I should 
have flung Servetus to the professed enemies of Christ, as to 
wild beasts. For they assert that it was by my means that he 
was apprehended at Vienne in the province of Lyons. But 
whence could I have suddenly acquired so great a familiarity, 
or rather favour, with the satellites of the Pope? Is it 
credible, forsooth, that a correspondence should be kept up 
between those who are not less at variance than Christ and 
Belial ? Wherefore there is no need to use many words in 
refuting so futile a calumny, which falls to the ground by a 
simple denial. Servetus himself invented this charge against 
me four years ago, and took care to spread it at Vienne. I 

* See Bullinger's Letter to Calvin, Ep. 157, and the answer of the Zurich 
ministers, Ep. 159, sub fin. 



chap, x.] CALVIN AND THE FRENCH INQUISITION. 



361 



will not inquire whether he was actuated by a malignant wish 
to excite against me a causeless hatred, or whether he really, 
though falsely, suspected what he charged me with. I only 
ask if he was then betrayed by my evidence, how comes it 
that he lived for three years quietly, and without molesta- 
tion, in the presence of his enemies ? One of two things must 
be conceded ; either the accusation was false, or this holy 
martyr must have been regarded with too much favour by 
the Papists for any accusation of mine to hurt him. Nor^ 
were the charge true, should I think it worth while to deny 
it, since I do not dissemble that it was by my authority he 
was arrested and tried in this city."* 

To make this denial literally true, it is only necessary, 
as Mosheim remarks, that Calvin should not have actually 
written or dictated Trie's letters, and that the first should 
have been despatched without his knowledge ; the possibility 
of both which circumstances has been already admitted. 
Calvin would not then have had a correspondence and 
familiarity with the satellites of the Pope, nor would he 
have been the first cause of the apprehension of Servetus. 
But this does not clear him from the charge of having 
furnished the evidence by which alone Trie's denunciation 
could be rendered effectual; and of thus having made 
himself a partaker in whatever guilt attaches to such an 
act. It may be said that Calvin's character places him 
above the suspicion of such a subterfuge. But the only 
way to obviate it is to prove that Trie's letters, supported as 
they are by the proceedings at Geneva and other collateral 
circumstances, are not genuine ; a feat not yet attempted by 
Calvin's warmest advocates. And, in fact, his conscience 
was rather pliant in the matter of reservations, as may be 
seen in a letter of his to the Duchess of Eerrara ; in which 
he tells her that she is not obliged to keep an oath 

* Refutafio Serveti, Opera, viii. 517, A., Amst. ed. 



362 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. X. 



administered to her when called on to take part in the 
French government.* 

There is no need to inquire into Calvin's denial of having 
denounced Servetus to the Catholic authorities some years 
previously. It may have been a groundless suspicion on the 
part of Servetus j but it does not follow that information 
had not been lodged against him, from some quarter or 
another, merely because he lived securely at Vienne for three 
or four years afterwards. Yet an argument has been based 
on this last circumstance by Armand de la Chapellef and 
others, to prove that Calvin had nothing to do with his 
prosecution at Vienne even in 1553. It is said that Calvin 
had all the documents in his possession long before that 
period ; and, from his not having used them at once, it is 
inferred that he never did so at all. The obvious answer to 
this is, that Servetus had not printed his book till 1553. 
This was an overt act, and furnished something tangible to 
the Roman Catholic authorities, who would have looked with 
suspicion on mere manuscript evidence, furnished by a 
man whom they considered to be a great heretic himself. 
But though this argument from probability was a somewhat 
plausible one in the hands of Armand de la Chapelle, who 
wrote before Trie's letters were published, one is surprised 
to see it repeated by Dr. P. Henry ; J since it is entirely 
demolished by the second of those letters. 

In Calvin's denial of this imputation just quoted, we 
cannot help being struck by the very summary way in which 
he disposes of it; and by the haste with which he passes 
over the recent charge, and addresses himself to another of 
the same kind made four years previously : a proceeding 

* " Quant au serment qu'on vous a contrainte de faire, comme vous avez 
failli et offense Dieu en le faisant, aussi n' estes vous tenue de le garder, non 
plus qu'un voeu de superstition." — Ruchat, vii., App., p. 379: These reservations 
became characteristic of the Puritans. See Dr. Maitland's Essays on the 
Reformation, Essays i. and ii. 

f Bibliotheque Baisonnee, i. 390. £ Leben Calvins, iii. 140, note. 



chap. x.J EXAMINATION OF CALYIN's MOTIVES. 363 



which has all the appearance of being designed to put the 
reader on a false scent, and to divert his attention from a 
charge that was true, to another, which might have been 
groundless or difficult of proof. Nor, after the discrepancies 
already pointed out between some of the statements made 
in this tract, and Calvin's correspondence, can we be 
required to place implicit confidence in all his assertions, or 
be at once silenced by an appeal to character. 

Such are the facts of this extraordinary case. Was Calvin's 
conduct in it guided solely by zeal for God's honour and 
the welfare of the church ? Or was he partly influenced by 
feelings of a more personal kind? In considering these 
questions we must not leave out of sight Calvin's irritable 
pride, which the reader has already seen in more than one 
instance, and the wounds it had received from the attacks 
of Servetus. The latter' s book on the ei Restitution of 
Christianity" was not worse than his previous one on the 
" Trinity," for which Bucer had declared that he merited a 
terrible death. Yet we find Calvin corresponding with him 
on terms of tolerable courtesy long after the publication of 
the latter; and suddenly breaking off all communication, 
and expressing a desire to put him to death, only when the 
correspondence became angry and personal. The abuse of 
Calvin is one of the charges against Servetus in his indict- 
ment at Geneva ; and the former declares in more than one 
place that Servetus might have saved his life had it not been 
for his pride. * His offence against God, then, might have 
been overlooked, but not his manner of maintaining it 
against man. Will it be said Calvin merely means that his 
crime was aggravated by the obstinate pride with which he 
refused to retract his blasphemies, and thus became worthy 
of capital punishment ? This solution has been alluded to 

* See the passage quoted above from his tract against Servetus (p. 355, note) ; 
and compare the Resjponsio ad Balduini Convicia, where Calvin says : " Certe 
arrogantia non minus quam impietas perdidit hominem." — Opera, viii. 319, B. 



364 



LIFE OF JOHX CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



by Mosheini as a possible one ; but it seems completely cut 
off, not only by Calvin's letter to Farel in February, 1546, 
but also by another to the same person on the 20th of 
August, 1553, which has been already cited; in which he 
desires the death of Servetus, though he had been captured 
only a week ; at which time Calvin could not certainly tell 
whether he would retract or not. But perhaps the most 
suspicious circumstance in the case is the hesitation with 
which Calvin furnished the necessary documents to the 
authorities of Yienne. Dr. Henry says that he was hesitating 
between the principles of the Old and New Testaments. 
TThether he was not rather hesitating between the abandon- 
ment of a great principle, and the gratification of private 
revenge, must be left to the reader, or rather to the Searcher 
of all hearts. 

Calvin's defence of his conduct pleased neither himself, 
nor his friends; which is not much to be wondered at. 
Zerkinta (Zur-Kinden), the state secretary of Berne, and a 
friend of Calvin's, objected to it on account of its principles. 
In a letter to Calvin, dated the 10th of February, 1554, he 
says : " I wish the former part of your book, respecting the 
right which the magistrate may have to use the sword in 
coercing heretics, had not appeared in your name, but in 
that of your council, which might have been left to defend 
its own act. I do not see how you can find any favour 
with men of sedate mind in being the first formally to 
treat this subject, which is a hateful one to almost all." * 
Bullinger's objections were confined to the manner in which 
the subject had been handled. Writing to Calvin on the 
26th of March, 1554, he says : "I only fear that your book 
will not be so acceptable to many of the more simple-minded 
persons, who, nevertheless, are much attached both to your- 
self and to the truth, by reason of its brevity, and consequent 
obscurity, and the weightiness of the subject. And, indeed, 



* MS. Gen., apwd P. Henry, iii. 238, note. 



chap.x.] calyin's defence unsatisfactory. 365 



your style appears somewhat perplexed, especially in this 
work." * 

There is extant in the Zurich archives a letter of Calvin's 
apparently in answer to this of Bullinger's ; from which, as 
it throws some light on the general feeling in this matter, we 
give the following extract :f "I always feared that some 
obscurity would arise from the brevity of my tract ; but this 
I could not guard against, or rather, I was induced by other 
reasons not to guard against it. It seemed to me that my 
chief, if not my only object, should be to make the impiety of 
Servetus appear in a detestable light. Had I handled the 
topics of my dissertation in a complete and perfect manner 
I should have been suspected of the sly purpose of over- 
whelming, by a splendid treatise, dogmas which, after all, 
were not so very impious. I do not, myself, perceive that 
weigh tiness of style which you remark. On the contrary, 
I used my best endeavours that, so far as possible, even the 
unlearned reader might, without much trouble, behold the 
thorny subtleties of Servetus made smooth and plain. At 
the same time I am aware that I have been more concise 
than usual in this treatise. J However, if I should appear to 
have faithfully and honestly defended the true doctrine, it 
will more than recompense me for my trouble. But though 
the candour and justice which are natural to you, as well as 
the love you bear me, lead you to judge of me favourably, 
there are others who assail me harshly as a master in cruelty 
and atrocity, for attacking with my pen not only a dead 
man, but one who perished by my hands. Some, even not 
ill-disposed towards me, wish that I had never entered on 
the subject of the punishment of heretics, and say that 
others in the like situation have held their tongues, as the 

* Original Letters (Parker Society), Part ii. p. 744. 
f The letter is printed at length by Dr. Henry in the Beilagen to his third 
volume, p. 86, et seq. It is dated April 29th, 1554. 

£ Bullinger's objections to the style seem certainly unfounded. 



366 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X. 



best way of avoiding hatred. It is well, however, that I 
have you to share my fault, if fault it be ; for you it was who 
advised and persuaded me to it. Prepare yourself, therefore, 
for the combat." 

Calvin's book naturally called forth some replies. In the 
same year appeared the "Dialogues between Calvin and 
Vaticanus;"* in which Calvin's propositions respecting the 
punishment of heretics are first set down with his name 
over them, and then the author's answers, with the title 
of " Vaticanus 93 prefixed. It follows Calvin's arrangement 
throughout, and refutes him step by step. The author is 
very severe upon Calvin, whom he assails not only for his 
life, his doctrine of predestination, &c, but even for his 
learning, which he seems to have considered unapostolical. 
He does not excuse the doctrines of Servetus, but defends 
him from the charge of blasphemy on the ground that his 
attacks were not directed against the Deity, but against 
men's opinions of him.f Another answer came out under 
the pseudonym of Martinus Bellius, and with the title 
" De Hcsreticis an sint persequendi," but which afterwards 
obtained the name of the "Farrago." It consisted of 
passages, selected from the writings of the Reformers of the 
sixteenth century, condemning capital punishment in cases of 
heresy. This book was received with great applause, and 
went through several editions in a short time ; in the later 
of which the opinions of the ancient Fathers of the Church 
on the same subject were added. J Beza unhesitatingly 
ascribes the authorship of it to Castellio and Lselius Socinus 
jointly, though the former denied it upon oath.§ The work 
of Minus Celsus, already alluded to, was also composed in 

* The proper title is, a Contra Libellum Calvini, in quo ostendere conatur 
Hcereticos jure Gladii coercendos esse." 

+ See P. Henry, Lelen Calvins, iii., Beil. p. 94. 
J Mosheim, Geschichte Servets, B. ii., note 11. 

§ Vita Calv.f sub annis 1554 et 1549. M. Crie attributes it to Socinus. See 
Ref. in Italy, -p. 388, note. 



CHAP. X.] 



KEPLIES TO CALYIN'S BOOK. 



367 



1554, but it did not appear till 1577, and, consequently, long 
after Calvin's death. Unlike the controversial works of the 
age, it is written with great politeness, in a mild and quiet 
tone, breathing the true spirit of the gospel. Though Calvin's 
principles are opposed, he is treated with deference throughout. 
The author was induced to write it from perceiving that many 
who had been eye-witnesses of the death of Servetus were led 
by the constancy he displayed to think that his principles were 
true, and thus to fall away from the church.* 

Calvin did not again enter the lists on this question, of 
which he seems to have been heartily tired, but handed over 
his antagonists to Beza. In 1554 Zanchi also published a 
tract, in which Calvin's views were defended. But the latter' s 
conduct had drawn down upon him a very bitter hatred, 
which went on increasing. Hotoman, writing to Bullinger 
from Basle, 27th of September, 1555, says: "Calvin is no 
better spoken of here than at Paris. If any one wants to 
blame another for perjury or immorality, he calls him a 
Calvinist. He is attacked in all quarters most savagely and 
importunately." t 



Leben Calvins, iii. 237. 



f IMd.,y. 239. 



368 



LIFE OF JOHN GAL YIN, 



[CHAF. XI. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Affair of Berthelier — Calyin refuses to administer the Lord's Supper — Question 
of excommunication — Truce with the Libertines — Libel upon Calvin — 
His unpopularity — Disputes with the Bernese clergy — Calvin visits Berne — 
Banishment of Bolsec — Further struggles with the Libertines — The 
Consistory's power of excommunication confirmed — Question of citizenship 
— Riots — The Libertines discomfited — Sentence upon them. 

We must now return to the civil affairs of Geneva, and 
the struggles of Calvin with the Libertine, or Patriot, party, 
during the course of this and the two following years. 

It will be recollected that Calvin's opponents had for a 
considerable period been gaining strength ; and this they 
employed in extorting from him and the refugees certain 
privileges which they had hitherto enjoyed. In March, 1553, 
the ministers were excluded from the general council, or 
assembly of the people,* and shortly afterwards the refugees 
were forbidden to carry arms. The affair of Servetus tended 
on the whole to strengthen the Libertines ; though, as we 
have seen, that heretic relied with a too fatal confidence on 
the power of that party to save him. The season of his 
imprisonment and trial was deemed a favourable opportunity 
for making an assault upon the spiritual authority of Calvin 
and the consistory. The person put forward for this purpose 
was Philibert Berthelier, who was now sitting as one of 
Servetus's judges, and was the son of that Berthelier who, 
in 1518, had been beheaded for the part he had taken in 
favour of the freedom of Geneva, f Calvin has given an 



* " Arrete* que les ministres seront dispenses de se rencontrer au Conseil 
General, mais que leurs enfans pourront y aller." — Registres, 16 Mars, 1553. 
Gre'nus, Fragmens Biographiques. f Ruchat, vi. 37. 



chap, xr.] AFFAIR OF BERTHELIER. 369 

account of this affair in a letter to Viret,* from which we 
learn that Berthelier had been excluded from the communion 
a year and a half before, f on which occasion Calvin, on 
the complaint of Berthelier, had been summoned before the 
council, " on account of the scoundrel," as he terms it ; but 
after hearing the case that body decided in Calvin's favour, 
and ratified the sentence of excommunication pronounced by 
the consistory. Under this ban Berthelier had quietly lain 
till the present time, either, says Calvin, out of despair, or 
contempt; but he was unwilling to let the opportunity of 
Perrin's syndicate slip, without an attempt to regain his 
rights ; and with this view he now moved the council that 
they should, of their own proper authority, and without 
consulting the consistory, release him from the sentence of 
the latter tribunal, and restore him to the church. Before 
taking any step in the matter, the council summoned Calvin 
before them, without his colleagues ; on which occasion 
he pointed out, in a long speech, that they could not law- 
fully assume the power of abrogating Berthelier' s sentence ; 
and that it would be exceedingly unjust and improper to 
undermine the discipline of the church by such a proceeding. 
On a subsequent occasion Calvin assembled all the ministers, 
both those of the town and those of the rural districts, and 
putting himself at their head, appeared before the council. 
He again employed arguments, threats, and entreaties ; and 
the ministers severally represented that, if such proceed- 
ings were allowed, they should be forced to abandon their 
church and ministry. J But all these efforts served only to 
raise the fury of Calvin's adversaries to a higher pitch. 

* Ep. 154, Sept. 4th, 1553. 
f "P. Berthelier se plaint au Conseil que le Consistoire lui a defendu la cene pour 
n'avoir pas voulu convenir qu'il avoit fait mal de soutenir qu'il etoit aussi homme 
de bien que Calvin." — Eegistres, 27 Mars, 1552. Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques, 
who, however, puts this entry in 1551 ; whilst P. Henry (hi. 359) gives the date 
of 1553. Both Spon (ii. 70), however, and Ruchat, (vi. 37), correctly write 1552 ; 
which date agrees with Calvin's expression, "ante sesquianiium." 

X Ruchat, 1. c. 

B B 



370 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap XI. 



They exclaimed that the consistory wanted to usurp the 
functions that belonged to the civil power, and demanded 
that the matter should be referred to the council of Two 
Hundred. That body, on the matter being brought before 
them, decided that the ordinary council had the power of 
receiving such complaints as Berthelier's, and of absolving 
whom they thought proper from ecclesiastical censures; 
and, in conformity with this decision, Berthelier obtained 
absolutory letters signed with the seal of the republic. 

Perrin now thought that the moment of his triumph was 
at hand. Either Calvin, he reasoned, would oppose this 
proceeding of the council's, and he might thereupon get him 
condemned as a rebel ; or if, on the other hand, he should 
bow to their decision, the power of the consistory was gone 
for ever.* But this opinion was founded on a wrong 
estimate of Calvin's character. It was on a Friday that 
Calvin first heard of the absolution of Berthelier by the 
council ; and the following Sunday was the first Sabbath in 
September, when, according to a custom universally observed 
in the Reformed churches, the Lord's Supper was to be cele- 
brated. On the intervening Saturday Calvin made one more 
effort to persuade the council to alter their determination, 
and protested that he would rather die than profane the 
sacrament by administering it to an excommunicated person. f 
The council, however, remained firm in their resolution, and 
Calvin was not long in deciding upon his own line of 
conduct. The decisive Sunday arrived. Calvin mounted 
the pulpit as usual ; and after descanting on the veneration 
due to the holy mysteries of God, and inveighing against 
their contemners, he raised his voice as he approached the 
conclusion of his discourse and declared that, after the 
example of St. Chrysostom, he would never administer the 
supper to the excommunicate; and that if there were any 
among them who would extort by force the bread of the 



* Beza, Vita Calv. 



f Ruchat, vL 38. 



CHAP. XI.] 



THE COMMUNION DENIED. 



371 



Lord, on his head be the consequence. Then, lifting up his 
hands on high, he exclaimed : " I will lay down my life ere 
these hands shall reach forth the holy things of God to those 
who have been branded as his revilers." 

Perrin was present, who seems to have always possessed 
a decent feeling of religion, and indeed some respect for 
Calvin's character. These words made such an impression 
upon him that he secretly sent a message to Berthelier, not 
to approach the table; and the communion was celebrated 
in profound silence, a sort of awe pervading the assembly, 
as if, says Beza, the Deity himself were present. In the 
afternoon Calvin preached another sermon, taking his text 
from Acts, chap. xx. : " Therefore watch, and remember that 
by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one 
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend 
you to God, and to the word of his grace." In the course of it 
he declared that he was not the man to resist the constituted 
authorities, nor to teach others to do so; he exhorted the 
congregation to abide in the doctrine which he had taught ; 
and declared that he should be always ready to serve the 
church, and each of its members. " But," he added, " such 
is the state of things here, that this may perhaps be the last 
time I shall teach God's word to you; since they with whom 
lies the power would force me to do a thing which God 
permits not. I must, therefore, say, like Paul to the elders 
of Ephesus, dearly beloved, I commend you to the grace 
of God."* 

But though Calvin talked of leaving his flock, he was not 
the man to give up such a cause without a struggle. On the 
following morning, accompanied by the rest of the pastors, 
and by the lay members of the consistory, he appeared 
before the council, and subsequently before the Two Hundred, 
to beg that, as a law was in question which had been 

* Beza. Ruchat, vi. 39. This sermon was taken down by a short-hand 
writer, and put into Latin by Beza. See Calvin, Epp. et Resp. f Ep. 162. 

B B % 



372 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI. 



sanctioned by the general assembly of the people, he might 
now be heard before that body. Thus circumstances often 
strangely alter men's opinions ; and we here find Calvin, 
when he saw himself and his cause threatened with ruin, 
appealing to those very popular institutions whose power it 
had previously been one of his chief objects to curtail. 
Calvin's request was not granted, yet a very different state 
of feeling was exhibited. It was resolved to suspend the 
decree by which the power of excommunication had been 
declared to reside with the ordinary council, and to request 
the opinion of the four Swiss cities on the matter j and in 
the meantime it was proclaimed that the established laws 
ought not to be violated.* 

Thus, though the point was left still undecided, Calvin's 
energy of purpose bore him for the time safely through the 
storm. Everything, indeed, that he had been so long con- 
tending for, depended on the issue of the struggle; for if 
the consistory should be deprived of the right of excom- 
munication, he would lose the main instrument of his 
power. That under such circumstances he would have 
consented to remain at Geneva may well be doubted ; and 
his threat of leaving it seems to have been no idle one. In 
a letter to Bullinger he communicated his determination to 
do so ; and Bullinger in his reply earnestly entreated him to 
remain.t In another letter to the same pastor, written in 
the following November, he represents these attacks upon 
him as a sort of trap laid by his enemies, who knew the 
irritability of his temper, and thought that, by outraging his 
patience, they should succeed in driving him to some fatal 
and irrevocable step. J 

In the following November the Libertines endeavoured to 

* Beza, Vita Calv. + See Ep. 157, Sept. 14th, 1553. 

X " Wicked men, knowing my irritability, have endeavoured to exhaust my 
patience by frequently exciting my anger in various ways. But though the 
struggle was a difficult one, they have not succeeded in diverting me from my 
path, as they desired." — Ep. 162. 



chap, xi.] FAREL ACCUSED. 373 

get up another tumult, of which Farel was the subject. 
Immediately after the execution of Servetus, Farel had left 
Geneva ; but, learning the turbulent proceedings which were 
taking place there, he hastened back a few days afterwards, 
to support Calvin, and. to overawe the malcontents by his 
authority and eloquence.* He accordingly mounted the 
pulpit, and, after preaching a powerful sermon against the 
Libertine faction, again quitted Geneva abruptly. That 
party chose to regard his discourse as an insult publicly 
offered to the state ; and instigated the council to apply to 
the magistrates of Neufchatel to send him back to take his 
trial for the offence, which they seem to have made nothing 
less than capital, f Notwithstanding the serious nature of 
the penalty, Calvin, who was probably aware that his 
adversaries could not possibly succeed in so outrageous a 
proceeding, wrote to Farel, advising him to come and take 
his trial at Geneva, in preference to waiting till proceedings 
should be instituted against him at Neufchatel. J Farel 
accordingly set off, on foot, and in wintry weather. His 
arrival created great disturbance. The council sent an 
officer to Calvin to say that Farel would not be allowed to 
mount the pulpit. § To tell a man, however, who was come 
to plead to a capital indictment, that he was not to preach a 
sermon, does not argue that his life was in any great danger. 
Berthelier, however, endeavoured to raise a disturbance, by 
getting the labourers in the mint, who were under his orders, 
to go to the Guildhall, and make a demonstration against 
Farel ; || and it was probably from this band that the cry 
arose, which Beza mentions, to fling Farel into the Rhone. 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, ii. 119. 
f " "When our brother Farel was here lately, to whom, as you well know, our 
people owe every thing, and freely admonished them, as he was well entitled to 
do, they burst out into such a rage against him as not to scruple at capitally 
indicting him." — Calvin to the Ministers of Zurich, Ep. 165, Nov. 26th, 
1553. 

X See Calvin's letter to Farel, MS. Gen., cited by P. Henry, iii. 364, note. 
§ Calvin, Ep. 165. || Kirchhofer, ii. 120. 



374 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xi. 



On the other hand, Farel's friends began to assemble. The 
Genevese ministers met, and represented to the council the 
evil views of FareFs enemies. Many of the townspeople 
assembled, and formed a guard round the person of their 
former pastor. Before the council Farel contended, in a 
long and animated speech, that his adversaries could not 
have been present at his sermon, for that he had said no 
more than what became his sacred office ; and declared that 
nothing was farther from liis thoughts than to insult a city 
towards which, as all men knew, he entertained the kindest 
feelings. This speech had a great effect upon the council, as 
well as upon the numerous audience which had penetrated 
into the council-chamber. Even those who had accused 
Farel declared that they held him to be a faithful minister 
of the gospel, and their spiritual father. On perceiving this 
feeling the council decreed that his accusers should shake 
hands with him, and that all animosity should be obliterated 
by a banquet.* Perrin, the chief syndic, begged pardon of 
Farel, declared that he was under obligations to him, and 
should ever consider him as his father and pastor. The rest 
did the like ; but all this, says the old chronicler Savion, was 
pure grimace. Perrin saw that his hands were not strong 
enough. t 

The question respecting excommunication still continued 
to be agitated; and on the 30th of November the Genevese 
council sent to learn the opinion of the four Swiss cantons, 
as had been before resolved. The three questions proposed 
to them were : — 1st, How excommunication should be 
exercised, in conformity with the precepts of Scripture ; 
2nd, If it could not be exercised otherwise than by the 
consistory ; and 3rd, What was the custom of their churches 

* " Ceux qui s' etaient plaints de Farel declarerent tous qu'ils le tenoient 
pour un fidele ministre du St, Evangile et pour leur pere spirituel ; sur quoi 
le Conseil ordonna que chacun lui, touchat la main, et qu'il se fit un repas 
de reconciliation." — Megistres, 13 Nov., 1553. Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 
Kirchhofer, I.e. f See Ruchat,Ti. 63. 



CHAP. XI.] 



QUESTION OF EXCOMMUNICATION. 



375 



on this point. * Previously, however, Calvin thought it 
expedient to dispatch Bude, a son of Budseus the illustrious 
Greek scholar, as a special messenger to Bullinger, to put 
him in possession of the whole matter, and to dispose him 
to a favourable opinion on the question about to be sub- 
mitted to the judgment of the Zurich government. In the 
letter which he sent at the same time, f he intimated his desire 
that the council of Zurich should unambiguously approve 
of the discipline established at Geneva, and dissuade the 
Genevese from the desire of change ; and he accompanied this 
private letter with another of the same date, addressed to 
the Zurich ministers, to induce them to exert their influence 
with their council. J In this, after a short preface, and an 
apology for troubling them again so soon, he related the case 
of Berthelier, whom he represented as put forward by the 
same faction that had undertaken the defence of Servetus. He 
stated that the question at issue concerned church discipline, 
and the right of excommunication, respecting which he 
entered into some arguments : he represented the matter as 
of the utmost importance, and as having now arrived at a 
crisis ; and showed the violent and factious temper of his 
adversaries, by relating the case of Farel. These letters 
he accompanied with two other documents, consisting of 
an extract from the laws of the Genevese consistory, § and a 
memorial which the ministers of Geneva had presented to 
the council to explain their conduct, and to show that they 
could not conscientiously submit to its decision. 

Bullinger answered these letters on the 12th of December. || 
From his reply it appears that they were read in full council 
at Zurich, and that the burgomaster, and three of the 
councillors, were deputed to take the advice of three pru- 
dent ministers as to an answer. The latter advised an 
approval of the method of excommunication exercised by 



* Ruchat, vi. 63. + Ep. 164, Nov. 26th, 1553. $ Ep. 165, 

§ See Ep. 167. II Ep. 166. 



37G 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK 



[chap. XI. 



the church of Geneva ; for though that used at Zurich was 
not of the same nature, they considered that both methods 
were adapted to the respective circumstances of the two 
cities. Bullinger enclosed an epitome of the discipline 
observed at Zurich; and in a postscript, dated on the 13th 
of December, announced that the council of Zurich had 
coincided in the views just stated. But though he had thus 
exerted himself in Calvin's cause, it appears, from some 
expressions in his letter, that he suspected him of being too 
hasty and intemperate, and admonished him against undue 
severity.* 

The magistrates of Berne replied shortly, that they had no 
excommunication in their church, but certain ordinances of 
which they forwarded a copy. The replies of the two other 
cantons are not extant, but they appear to have allowed of the 
Genevan discipline. f Bullinger also sent with his letter an 
abstract of the Zurich laws respecting adultery, from which it 
appears that it was punished there by exclusion from the 
communion, and from all posts of honour, with three days' 
imprisonment, and if there was no amendment, with banish- 
ment. J The Swiss laws were, therefore, considerably milder 
than those instituted by Calvin. Indeed, they appear to 
have been too lax in this article ; for, from the synodal acts 
of 1537, we learn that one of the Zurich clergy, Fridolin 
Keller, the pastor of Begenspurg, who had been deposed for 
that crime before Easter, was restored to his functions in the 
course of the same year. The same document contains 
frequent evidence of the disorders and extravagance of the 
Zurich clergy. § 

* " We exhort you to continue faithful to the Lord, and to observe modera- 
tion in all things, lest by too much rigour you should destroy those whom the 
Lord wishes to be preserved ; who doth not break the shattered reed, nor 
extinguish the smoking flax." — Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 166. 

f Ruchat, vi. 68. + P. Henry, hi. 367, note. 

§ See Seltzer, Die drci ktzten Jahrhunderte der Schweitzergeschichte, lOte 
Vorlesung, i. 152. 



CHAP. XI.] 



A TKUCE WITH THE LIBERTINES. 



377 



The answers of the Swiss cantons produced but little 
immediate effect. On the 31st of December, 1554,* we find 
Calvin writing to Bullinger : " I have to deal with the most 
wicked calumniators, who will involve me in all manner of 
strife. Yet I hope to carry off the victory, or at all events 
to arrive at some tolerable issue." f Yet, externally, every- 
thing wore the appearance of peace. On the 1st of January, 
1554, at a grand dinner given to the council and judges, at 
which Calvin was present, a desire for peace was universally 
expressed. The council appointed a committee to examine 
into differences, to hear the complaints of both parties, 
and to heal the divisions which had extended even to 
members of the same families. On the 2nd of February 
the council of Two Hundred, amongst which body Calvin's 
opponents were chiefly to be found, swore with uplifted 
hands to conform in future to the precepts of the Reforma- 
tion, to renounce all hatred and animosity, to forget the 
past, and to live together in unity; at the same time 
invoking the vengeance of God upon the estates, persons, 
wives and children of those who should break this holy 
resolution. J But notwithstanding the solemn nature of this 
reconciliation, Calvin appears to have placed no reliance upon 
it. He considered it rather as a truce made with himself 
personally, than with the consistory ; for the maintenance of 
whose authority he foresaw that further struggles awaited 
him. Writing to Bullinger, on the 23rd of February, he 
says : "A reconciliation has at length been necessarily effected; 
for the council was divided into open factions, and hatred 
had so plainly manifested itself, that the wicked felt that the 

* By order of their bishop, in 1305, the Genevese thenceforward began the 
year at Christmas instead of Easter. This was a change from the French to 
the German style. The French adopted the 1st of January in 1564 ; and the 
Genevese followed their example in 1575. See Grenus, Fragmens Eistoriques, 
p. 2, note. f MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, hi. 367, note. 

X Ruchat, vi. 115. Calvin, Ep. 171. Dr. Henry (I.e.) seems to have no 
authority for stating that this oath was administered to the whole population. 



378 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xr. 



vengeance of God was hanging over them. Yet the well- 
disposed have not had the courage to regulate the affairs of 
the church, which are the cause of all this strife. All that 
was done was to shake hands, and take an oath that none 
hereafter would patronise evil courses. By this, indeed, my 
opponents have tacitly read their own condemnation ; yet, 
under the plausible pretence of peace, the lawful order of 
the church, the sole guarantee of tranquillity, has been 
neglected, or at all events postponed. When called into the 
council chamber, I declared that I forgave all who sincerely 
repented ; but that I was but one member of the consistory, 
and that I would die a hundred times over rather than 
arrogate to myself the functions of the entire church. I 
perceived that Satan desired nothing more than that, in this 
disturbed state of things, he might supply some fresh occasion 
of tumult. But I am determined to be beforehand with 
him. And although my enemies will, perhaps, not be so 
violent as formerly, yet in a short time I shall have to 
contend with them again." * In another letter of the 11th 
of the same month, he attributes the reconciliation which 
had been effected to the artifice of his enemies, and expresses 
his determination not to make the slightest concession with 
regard to the right of excommunication, hinting that, if he 
cannot carry his point, he shall leave Geneva.f 

In the summer of 1554, an anonymous letter was received 
by the Genevese council, containing charges of the most 
frightful kind against Calvin. The council handed it over 
to Calvin, who suspected that it was written by Castellio ; 
and wrote a letter communicating his suspicions to Sulzer, 
the pastor at Basle, where Castellio was residing. Sulzer/ 
in his answer, J expressed his surprise that Castellio, who 
appeared to be so great a lover of peace and charity, should 
have been the author of such an attack, and promised that 

* Ep. 171. t MS. Tig., apud P. Henry, iii. 363, note. 

£ Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 174, July 14th, 1554. 



CHAP. XI.] 



LIBEL UPON CALVIN. 



379 



he should be severely admonished. In reply to this, Calvin 
says : " Castellio, believe me, is a beast as virulent as he is 
untamed and obstinate. He is a great pretender to charity, 
and to modesty also, though nothing more arrogant can be 
imagined. He and others concocted that libel, filled with 
such atrocious imputations, with the design of exciting a 
sudden explosion against me. They have, however, been 
sadly deceived. The council gave it me to read ; and it was 
easy for me not only promptly to confute their calumnies, 
but even to convert all their odious charges to my praise." * 
Beza, in his " Life of Calvin," attributes the libel to Bolsec 
and others, as well as to Castellio, whom he represents as 
having been instigated to this step by the Libertine faction. f 
Castellio, indeed, was always the object of his and Calvin's 
suspicions ; and this circumstance, as well as the vagueness 
of a charge directed against so many, should make us pause 
before we consider it as well founded on this occasion. 
Castellio denied before the council at Basle that he was the 
author of the libel, which Calvin answered in a short tract. 

During this year the council would not allow Calvin to 
publish anything without their sanction. A book which he 
was preparing — probably the " Defensio Sance et Orthodoocm 
Doctrines de Sacramentis," which appeared in November — 
was ordered to be submitted to the physician Beljaquet, for 
examination.^ Calvin was so offended at this as to declare 
that, if he lived a thousand years, he would never print 
anything more at Geneva ; and that he would sooner destroy 
what had been approved of by pious and learned men, than 
give it to ignorant dolts to nibble at. § 

At this time he could hardly walk the streets without 
being insulted. Once, as he was returning from St. Gervais, 
where he had been preaching, he was attacked by some 

* Ep. 176, Aug. 7th. '+ Vita Calv., anno 1554. 

X " On charge le medecin Beljaquet d'examiner un livre que Calvin voudrait 
faire imprimer." — Eegistres, 19 Juillet, 1554. Gre'nus, Fragmens Biographiques. 
§ Kirchhofer, ii. 131. 



380 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xr. 



fellows on the bridge of the Rhone. On his quietly observing 
that the bridge was broad enough for them all, the ruffians 
turned their attack upon a French refugee who was walking 
near the spot, pursued him into his shop, and wounded him. 
A cry was raised of "Death to the foreigners!" A crowd 
soon gathered, swords were drawn, and blood spilt. On 
another occasion, when Calvin was proceeding to the lecture- 
room, he was publicly insulted, and his servant beaten. 
Such scenes were of daily occurrence. It was unsafe for 
the refugees to be in the streets at night. Complaints were 
loudly uttered against Calvin, and what were called his 
French laws. The admonitions of the consistory were set at 
nought, and the members of it personally abused and insulted. 
One man ventured to tell them that they were more cruel 
than Satan himself, but that they should not be so long. 
On the other hand, Calvin hotly attacked his adversaries 
from the pulpit : but the council found his heat untimely, 
and desired him to moderate his zeal.* 

Besides having to contend with his domestic enemies, 
Calvin was at this time involved in disputes with some of 
the Bernese ministers, holding cures in the Pays de Vaud, 
on the subject of his doctrine of predestination, and on the 
right which he claimed of excommunication. These ministers, 
as well as many laymen of the same district, were loud in 
their abuse of the Genevese, and of Calvin in particular. 
"Writing to Bullinger on the 18th of September, 1554, Calvin 
says : " Meanwhile I am attacked by our neighbours in a 
way which it is too little to call atrocious. The preachers 
in the Bernese territory denounce me from the pulpit as 
a heretic even worse than the Papists. The more violently 
any one assails me the more he is favoured and protected ; 
meanwhile I hold my tongue, but God will look down from 
heaven and avenge me." f In another letter dated the 15th 
of October, J addressed apparently to an old friend, but whose 

* P. Henry, iii. 369. f MS.. Gen, apvd P. Henry, iii. 70, note. $ Ep. 189. 



CHAP. XI.] 



calvin's unpopularity. 



381 



name Beza has suppressed, Calvin thus describes the abuse 
to which he was subjected : " I may at once candidly confess 
that I have been informed you do not hold the sound doctrine 
respecting the eternal predestination of God. Although I 
always feared this, yet I did not believe so much as, to my 
bitter grief, I have been compelled to hear. Moreover, 
though I felt myself injured in various ways, I remained 
quiet ; preferring to swallow such indignities in silent sorrow 
to snapping the chain of our old friendship. Now, too, I 
must beg to be silent, though attacked no less undeservedly 
than bitterly. If you knew but a tenth part of the abuse 
with which I am wounded, feelings of humanity would make 
you groan at sufferings to which I am myself grown callous. 
Dogs bark at me on all sides. Everywhere I am saluted 
with the name of ' heretic/ and all the calumnies that can 
possibly be invented are heaped upon me : in a word the 
inimical and malevolent among my own flock attack me with 
more bitterness than even my declared Papist enemies." 
Such were the feelings which Calvin's treatment of Servetus 
had partly helped to excite even in some of his former friends. 
Some of his complaints on this occasion betray great soreness, 
and a sad want of dignity. Thus he even condescended to 
mention, in one of the letters of himself and brother ministers 
to those of Berne, that a certain woman had called him a 
heretic because he made God the author of sin ; and that 
he had been abused in a cobbler's shop by a rustic named 
Granerius.* 

On the 2nd of October the council of Geneva wrote to 
the Bernese to complain of the abuse with which they were 
loaded in the Pays de Vaud; and denounced by name 
Zebedee, minister of Nyon; Lange, minister of Bursins; 
JeromeBolsec, and a merchant named Foussalet,orFousselet.t 
Calvin and the Genevese ministers also wrote to those of 



* Calvin to the Bernese Ministers, Dec. 29th, 1554, apud Trechsel, i. 196. 
f Ruchat, vi. 121. 



382 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIK 



[chap. XI. 



Berne on the subject. In their letter they say : " A report 
prevails that we have been condemned as heretics by the 
clergy of Berne. Zebedee, babbling about predestination at 
a wedding dinner, exclaimed aloud that we were worse than 
the Papists. Encouraged by him, that fiend (Bolsec), who 
lives at Thonon, cries that Calvin is a heretic, an antichrist. 
On the other side of the lake lives another, not much different 
from him ; his name is Sebastian, a banished Genevese. Now 
reflect what sport we are preparing for the Papists, and to 
what scoffing the holy name of Christ is exposed."* One 
of the charges brought by Calvin's enemies was, that the 
doctrine of him and his followers respecting predestination 
opened a door to all sorts of licentiousness; for that if 
people were elected it did not signify what they did, as 
they were sure to be saved. f 

In their reply the council of Berne expressed their sorrow 
for these disorders, as it had always been their care to main- 
tain christian unity; with which view they had strongly 
forbidden all bitter disputes, whether in speech or writing, as 
well as all false doctrine and slanderous libels. They assured 
the Genevese that they should continue to pursue the same 
conduct, and desired them, on their part, to direct their 
ministers not to defame the government of Berne, nor their 
clergy, their Reformation, and their church, either publicly 
or privately, in writing or by word of mouth, but charitably 
to recognise them as brothers in Christ. J The Bernese also 
wrote to all the classes of the Pays de Vaud, censuring their 
ministers, for not living in unity with their brethren of 
Geneva, and for neglecting the edicts already published on 
this subject. They stated that the offenders richly deserved 
the banishment with which they had been threatened the 
preceding year ; and that though they were willing to pardon 

* Trechsel, Antitr., i. 196, et seq. P. Henry, iii. 70. 
+ u Quod licentiam dent scortandi et quidvis agendi ; nihil referre quid 
agant, servabuntur, nihil metuant." — Farel to Calvin, Feb. 5th, 1555 (Trechsel, 
i. 199, note). J Ruchat, vi. 121. 



chap, xi.] DISPUTES WITH THE BERNESE CLERGY. 383 



them this time, yet if they again offended they must expect 
nothing but deposition and exile. 

This conduct of the Bernese magistrates appears moderate 
and dignified, yet Calvin and his brother ministers were not 
satisfied. However violent and unjustifiable the behaviour 
of some of the ministers and subjects of Berne may have 
been, we cannot help suspecting that those of Geneva 
were not far behind them. The accounts we possess are 
chiefly from Calvin's friends ; but, from an incidental notice 
of this matter in the diary of Haller, the Bernese pastor, we 
find that Viret and the other ministers of Lausanne had 
complained of the minister of Vives-eaux for differing with 
them on the subject of predestination, on which he had pub- 
lished a book which they got the magistrates to suppress. 
And though the Bernese magistrates had given a general 
order that nothing more should be published on the subject, 
yet, says Haller, neither Viret nor Beza, who was then Greek 
professor at Lausanne, paid attention to it.* The edict, too, 
of the Bernese magistrates shows that the slanderous tongues 
were not all to be found among their subjects. The council 
and ministers of Geneva, however, were not, as we have said, 
content with the edict, and again pressed the Bernese for the 
punishment of the four persons before named, who were 
accordingly cited to appear at Berne in the following January. 
Here Zebedee and Lange denied that they had ever defamed 
the doctrine of the Genevese ministers, or treated them as 
heretics ; but affirmed, on the contrary, that it was they who 
occasioned the scandal by blaming the Bernese, and by pro- 
posing things concerning the rites and ceremonies of the 
, church, which tended to confusion rather than edification, 
although in themselves of no great importance. Bolsec 
asserted that since the prohibition of the Bernese government 
in the previous year, he had not spoken a word of Calvin or 
his colleagues. Eoussalet also gave in a written answer, 



* Haller' s Diary, November, 1554, Mus. Helv., ii. 105. 



384 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI. 



which, together with the rest, were despatched to Geneva, 
with a letter, in which the Bernese expressed their regret at 
these scandals and divisions, which wonld not, they said, 
have occurred had the Genevese conformed to their rites, as 
they did at first. On the same day they wrote to all the 
classes of the Pays de Vaud, severely censuring those 
ministers who disputed with bitterness on the doctrines then 
agitated, or who pretended to introduce novelties, contrary 
to the Reformation of Berne, whether in doctrine, or in laws 
and discipline. In particular they censured those who 
followed " certain deep and subtle doctrines, opinions, and 
traditions of men, principally concerning divine predes- 
tination ; a thing, say they, which appears to us unnecessary, 
and tending more to factions, sects, errors, and corruption, 
than to edification and comfort."* 

It is plain from this mandate, which was, of course, directed 
against Viret, Beza, and the rest of Calvin's friends and 
followers in the Pays de Vaud, that the Bernese government 
was displeased at the pertinacity of the Genevese ministers. 
The allusion to the laws and discipline of the church of 
Berne has reference to the question of excommunication, on 
which the ministers of the Pays de Vaud were divided ; 
Viret and those of Lausanne adopting the views of Calvin, 
whilst others followed the German theologians, f This part 
of the Bernese mandate gave such offence to some in the 
Pays de Vaud, and especially to certain Frenchmen settled 
there, who looked upon excommunication as a divine injunc- 
tion, that they refused to receive the communion in their 
own parishes, but went for that purpose either to Geneva, 
or to some of the villages in the Genevese territory. This 
practice the Bernese council forbade, under severe penalties, 
by an edict dated on the 26th of January, 1555. As this 
edict was read from the pulpits, and placarded by the bailiffs, 
it was regarded by the people as an excommunication of the 



* Ruchat, vi. 122, et seq. 



f Ibid,, p. 124. 



chap, xi.] DISPUTES WITH THE BERNESE CLERGY. 385 

Genevese, and Calvin's name was execrated on all sides. 
Calvin thus disburdens his grief in a letter to Bullinger : 
"No sooner have we obtained a little qniet in Geneva, 
than the Bernese council absolves not only those who had 
denounced me for a heretic, but sends forth raging enemies 
against me and the church — nay, we are even accused as 
criminals. We have shown that we were always ready to 
render an account of ourselves, and have voluntarily made 
them our judges : but they will not hear us. Among other 
things they have forbidden their subjects, by public edicts, 
to take the communion with us. Wonder no longer at the 
barbarity of the Saxons, when the church is thus distracted 
out of hatred to a man who would have sacrificed his neck a 
hundred times to purchase peace. But nothing afflicts me 
more painfully than that by such signs God plainly fore- 
shadows his wrath. Well, if it will appease their hungry 
wrath, let me be sent into a tedious exile. I pour this 
complaint into your bosom, in order that you may support 
me by your righteous prayers." * 

As the Genevese were piqued at the edict in question, and 
were, moreover, but ill-satisfied with the manner in which 
their complaints had been received, they despatched, in 
March, 1555, a deputation to Berne, composed of one of the 
syndics, a member of the council, and two ministers, namely, 
Calvin and Raymond Chauvet, to demand justice against 
the four individuals who had been already accused, f As 
the latter were not then at Berne, the council appointed 
the 3rd of April for hearing the case, and cited them 
for that day. On this occasion Calvin called Perrin as a 
witness, who had been present when Zebedee uttered the 
words complained of at the wedding at Nyon: but he 

* MS. Tig., apud P. Henry, Hi. 71. 
f Calvin was accompanied on this occasion by Viret. (t March 10th, Calvin 
and Viret were here. They had an action against Andrew Zebedee. Calvin 
also wished his doctrine of predestination to be confirmed by our council, but 
did not succeed."— Haller, Diary, Mm. Helv., ii. 107. 



386 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI. 



excused himself by saying that he had forgotten all about 
it. * After hearing both parties, the council of Berne pro- 
nounced a judgment, the chief aim of which was to settle 
matters amicably, although they substantially adhered to 
their former sentence.f They directed that all abuse and ill- 
feeling should be laid aside by both parties. They exhorted 
the Genevese deputies to take care that their ministers 
preached with modesty, and in a manner calculated to 
instruct without offending, and that they abstained in future 
from publishing books upon the impenetrable decrees of 
God; a thing, they said, neither necessary nor edifying: 
promising at the same time that they would give the like 
orders to their ministers in the Pays Eomand. They de- 
clined passing any opinion upon Calvin's doctrine, and 
declared that they would not permit it to be discussed in 
their territories. They added, that they had learnt from 
some letters of Calvin's, that he rejected Zwingli's doctrine 
of the sacraments, calling it false and pernicious; a point 
which touched them nearly, as that doctrine had been 
received among them, and defended in the disputation of 
Berne. J They said that they might have adopted proceed- 
ings against Calvin on this subject, but that, in order to 
give him a lesson of moderation, they would not do so. But 
they gave him to understand, that if they should hereafter 
find any books of his in their country, or any treatises 
against their Reformation, they would burn them ; and would 

* Trechsel, Antitr., i. 201. f Ruchat, vi, 127, et seq. 

£ Ruchat, vi. 129, observes in a note, that the Bernese must have been 
misled on this point by some of Calvin's enemies, who wished to ruin him 
in their opinion. But the Bernese declare that they got their information from 
Calvin's own letters ; and indeed in one of his to Viret still extant, he says : 
"I shall not interfere with your opinions about Zwingli's writings. I have 
never read all his works. Perhaps towards the end of his life he retouched 
and corrected what at first he had unwillingly written. But I remember what 
a profane opinion he holds on the subject of the sacraments in many of his 
writings." — MS. Goth., apud Schlosser, Leben des P. Martyr, p. 451. Indeed, 
though often loud in praise of Luther, Calvin seldom speaks well of Zwingli, 
whom he seems to have regarded as a sort of rival. 



CHAP. XI.] 



CALVIN VISITS BEKNE. 



387 



punish any man who should speak or write against it in their 
territories. 

Calvin and the Genevese deputation were not content with 
this decision, but requested the government of Berne to give 
a more detailed judgment, and particularly to express their 
opinion upon Calvin's doctrine. The latter had brought with 
him a paper containing a sort of confession of faith, and 
addressed the council in a speech, the main drift of which 
was to show that the same doctrine was preached at Geneva 
as at Berne, namely, that of predestination ; and he, 
therefore, requested the Bernese to find some means of 
instructing their subjects better in it, and thus of obviating 
the calumnies which were spread against them (the Genevese) . 
He also requested that it might please them not to leave 
these calumnies unpunished ; and that the edict forbidding 
people to go to Geneva to receive the sacrament might be 
drawn up in a clearer manner; since some malicious persons 
interpreted it as if it were a condemnation of the Genevese 
doctrine. To this the Bernese answered drily, that if the 
deputation did not like their sentence they would not compel 
them to accept of it.* 

Of the persons cited, Zebedee denied that he had mentioned 
Calvin either in his books or sermons. Lange admitted 
having spoken of him in a conversation, on the subject of a 
passage in his treatise on predestination, which savoured of 
heresy. It was to the effect that Christ had despaired upon 
the cross ; and the error arose from his having translated the 
word evkafieias by prce metu, instead of prce reverentid.f 
Calvin said that it was an error of the press ; which, however, 
from the nature of it, could hardly have been the case. The 
council would not admit this excuse, and held him responsible. 
Foussalet having been convicted of some verses in which 
Geneva was called a Sodom, the Bernese council condemned 

* Trechsel, i. 203. P. Henry, iii. 73. 
See Haller, fiphem., Mus. Helv. } ii. 121 ; Bolsec, Vie de Calv., c. xxiv. 
C C 2 



388 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI 



him to make the amende honorable ; to acknowledge the 
Genevese to be good and honourable men and just governors; 
and afterwards to be banished for life, allowing him only a 
fortnight to arrange his affairs. Another person named 
Pierrechon, who had likewise defamed the Genevese, was 
condemned to make reparation, and to be imprisoned for three 
days.* Bolsec was also ordered to leave the territories of 
Berne.f 

Bolsec's banishment was effected through the persevering 
hostility of Beza. For this purpose he made numerous 
journeys on foot to Geneva, Thonon, Berne, Orbe, and other 
places, to win over the principal persons, both lay and clerical, 
against Bolsec, and to uphold Calvin's doctrine ; insomuch 
that he was accused of neglecting his duties as Greek 
professor at Lausanne in the pursuit of these objects. 
During this period Beza fell sick, and Calvin felt the greatest 
apprehension of losing him. When he was somewhat 
recovered Calvin sent a horse to bring him to Geneva, and 
lodged him in his own house during his convalescence. " The 
zeal for the pure doctrine manifested by both," says the 
biographer of Beza, " would border on monkish superstition, 
did not one circumstance essentially distinguish it. Whilst 
they stood upon the doctrine they spared no sacrifice to 
uphold and confirm the morality of those whom they did 
not consider as totally lost." J Beza was indefatigable in 
collecting evidence against Bolsec. No difficulties, no 
repulses, deterred him ; till at length he succeeded in 
catching Bolsec in such assertions at Morges, as enabled him 
to procure his banishment by the Bernese council. "In 
proportion to the difficulties of his task," says Schlosser, 
" Beza displayed a resolution and disinterestedness which 
showed a great soul. He even said that, if the earth would 
not have him, heaven at least was open to him ; that is, that 

* Ruchat, 1. c. f Beza, Vita Calv., anno 1555. 

J Schlosser, Leben Bezas, p. 4 9. 



CHAP. XI. j 



BANISHMENT OF BOLSEC. 



389 



he did not fear universal hatred, and banishment from Berne, 
provided he could forward the cause of truth. " * 

The Bernese appear to have acted on this occasion with 
their usual good temper and moderation. But Calvin was 
still dissatisfied, and addressed a remonstrance to the 
Bernese council, in which he says : " As much of the affair is 
connected with private hatred against myself, I wish to appear 
at Berne as a private person; but not I alone, but the 
whole Genevese church, as well as those of your clergy 
with whom I agree, are condemned by your edict. You 
hold that no books should be written concerning the 
mysteries of God. But to what does that lead ? Many in 
your territories blaspheme against predestination more than 
is allowed even among the Papists. I am aware that in the 
handling of this deep and incomprehensible mystery we ought 
to be moderate and humble; but if your Excellencies had 
seen my calumniated book, you would have perceived that its 
only aim is to repress the temerity of men, and to teach 
them to address the majesty of God with all reverence, and 
without giving the reins to curiosity. If one is determined 
to throw aside this doctrine, without any regard to modesty 
and humility, such a proceeding amounts to an attempt to 
improve upon the Holy Ghost ; and consequently we should 
strike out of the Scriptures what is revealed to us on the 
subject. I cannot but wonder that I alone am attacked, 
when, if a comparison be made, it will appear that I have used 
much more modest language than most of the learned men 
of Germany who brought the gospel to light in our time. 
Wherefore I adjure you, according to the precept of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, to have no respect to persons ; since, if 
my name and books were to perish, still the words of the 
Prophets and Apostles would remain untouched, from which 
I have taken the doctrine you condemn." f 

* Schlosser, Leben Bezas, p. 63. 
+ Trechsel, i. 205, and MS. Gen. et Bern., May 4th, 1555, apud P. Henry, iii. 75. 



390 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xi. 



Calvin added many more complaints in the same tone, and 
at the end of May again repaired to Berne to endeavour to 
establish a better understanding. This, however, led to no 
result ; and the Bernese council answered shortly that 
they would be troubled no more with a thing they had 
disposed of.* 

At the same time that these bickerings were going on 
between Calvin and the ministers of Berne, the Genevese were 
earnestly endeavouring to renew their alliance with that city, 
which would expire in 1556. The Genevese proposed a 
perpetual fellow-citizenship, but the government of Berne 
seem to have received their proposals rather coolly .f Yet 
at this time danger from without threatened both these 
republics. Emmanuel Philibert, surnamed Ironhead, son of 
Charles, Duke of Savoy, who died in exile in 1553, was using 
his utmost endeavours to recover his paternal inheritance; 
with which view he applied to the Emperor Charles V., who 
promised to reinstate him in the spring of 1555, and 
proposed at the same time to attack both Berne and Geneva. 
But Charles's war with the French king furnished him with 
sufficient employment without venturing into Switzerland; 
and the two cities escaped with a temporary alarm. J 

Meanwhile Calvin's struggles with his enemies at Geneva 
were rapidly drawing to a crisis. The Libertine party 
continued to exhibit much violence, and to commit many 
disorders. On the 9th of January, 1555, a party of young 
people, after supper, and inflamed probably by wine, 
exclaimed that they must give the consistory something to 
do ; and each seizing a lighted taper, made a sort of pro- 
cession through the city, singing profane songs to psalm 
tunes, and deriding the members of the consistory. Some 
of them afterwards went out of the town to a place called 
Coctinge ; and returning on horseback, traversed some of 
the principal thoroughfares, and finally took up their station 



* Trechsel, 1. c. 



f Ruchat, vi. 131. 



+ Ibid., p. 134. 



chap, xi.] EUKTHER STRUGGLES WITH THE LIBEKTINES. 391 



at the Pont d'Arve. Here they were seized, and one of 
them was afterwards banished for a year.* Nevertheless a 
more favourable spirit towards Calvin had begun to manifest 
itself in the council of the Two Hundred, where the strength 
of his enemies chiefly lay; and this was assisted by the 
circumstance of Perrin's syndicate being now expired. On 
the 24th of January the question of excommunication was 
brought before that assembly for final decision. The point 
in dispute did not concern the right of excommunication 
itself, which was conceded on all hands ; but turned only on 
what tribunal should determine on it in the last resort. 
Soon after Calvin's return, as it has been said, the general 
assembly of the people had invested the consistory with the 
absolute and uncontrolled power of excommunication ; from 
which the Libertine party were endeavouring to establish a 
right of appeal to the ordinary council. They complained of 
the anomaly that there should be a tribunal in the state 
■whose decrees the magistrates had not the power of reviewing. 
They described it as a sort of imperium in imperio ; from 
which common sense dictated that the sovereign power should 
be lodged entirely with the government, as a guarantee for 
those liberties which they had so dearly bought : and they 
enforced these arguments by pointing to the tyranny 
exercised by the Popes, and other prelates, under a pretence 
of spiritual jurisdiction. The ministers were summoned 
before the Two Hundred on this occasion. Calvin was their 
spokesman, and represented the obligation that all were under 
to defer to the authority of Jesus Christ, the head of the 
Church, and to that of the Apostles, to whom he had given 
the power to bind and loose, as well as to teach the word, 
and to administer the sacraments. He insisted that the civil 
magistrates had no more power in these matters than the 

* See Registres, quoted by P. Henry, iii. 370. Calvin has alluded to these 
struggles, as well as to his contests with the Bernese clergy, in his Preface to 
the Psalms. 



392 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI. 



ministers had to attack the government and the secular 
jurisdiction. He argued that the ministers were commissioned 
to take care that the sacraments were not profaned; and 
that as they, like all other members of the state, were subject 
in all secular matters to the judgment of the council, so in 
like manner all greatness and power should bend the knee to 
the reign and gospel of Christ. He pointed out that this 
distinction had always been carefully observed by good kings, 
and that, in the Jewish theocracy, the right of sacrificing had 
been left to Aaron, and that David had not interfered with it. 
He showed that the Lord had always signally punished those 
who violated the established order ; as in the case of Uzzah, 
who was struck with death for having placed his hand upon the 
ark ; and of the king Uzziah, who was punished with leprosy 
for having entered the sanctuary, and touched the censer. 
With regard to any fear that the consistory should abuse its 
authority, that had been sufficiently provided for by the edicts 
ratified by the general assembly, and there was nothing to be 
apprehended so long as these were properly observed. And he 
concluded by observing that all liberty, without Jesus Christ, 
was but a miserable servitude. These arguments seem to have 
made a great impression; and it was resolved by a majority 
that the edicts approved by the general assembly should 
remain inviolable. The consequence of this decision was 
that the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline remained wholly 
with the consistory.* 

This proceeding, however, only aggravated the anger and 
ill-feeling of the Libertines. They loudly demanded that 
preaching should be abolished, and the number of ministers 
reduced to two, who should merely read the text of Scripture 
from the pulpit, and teach the people the Creed, the Lord's 
Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. They asserted that 
so much interpretation was not only superfluous but 
dangerous; and seizing on the remonstrance made by the 



* Ituchat, vi. 1 33, et seq. 



chap, xi.] CONSISTORY AUTHORISED TO EXCOMMUNICATE. 393 



Bernese to the deputies from Geneva on the subject of 
Calvin's doctrine of predestination, they said that so many 
books of commentaries ought not to be printed.* 

The new syndics, who were favourable to Calvin, endea- 
voured to repress these clamours, and even punished and 
imprisoned some of the Libertine party. In order the 
better to make head against them, the council resolved on 
admitting a considerable number of the French refugees to 
the rights of citizenship; and, accordingly, in the spring, 
about fifty were received at once.f An appeal was made to 
the Two Hundred against this step, who, however, confirmed 
the right of the little council to admit whom they pleased 
to citizenship, as they had always done. J It can hardly be 
doubted that the ordinary council was influenced in this 
step by Calvin ; a circumstance which shows that his power 
was again in the ascendant. The appeal against it was 
instigated by Ami Perrin and Peter Vandel, the leaders 
of the Libertine or Patriot party, and also members of 
the little council; who even persuaded the lieutenant of 
police to appear, with his assessors, before the council, and 
to remonstrate with them, in the name of the people, against 
the reception of so large a number of aliens to the rights of 
citizenship. This was a very unbecoming step on the part 
of that officer; especially as he endeavoured to overawe the 
council by appearing at their doors attended by a great mob 
composed of sailors, fishermen, pastrycooks, and the like. § 
But when the malcontents heard that the Two Hundred had 
confirmed the privileges of the ordinary council, as to the 
election of citizens, their fury knew no bounds. The 
previous day the leaders of the Libertine party had regaled 
their followers gratuitously. The feasting was kept up all day, 

* Ruchat, vi. 136. + Calvin to Bullinger, Ep. 207, June 15th, 1555. 

J " Le grand Conseil confirme a MM. du petit Conseil le droit de faire des 
bourgeois quand ils le trouveront a propos pour l'honneur et pour le bien de la 
ville, ainsi qu'ils l'ont toujours eu." — Registres, 27 Mars, 1555. Grenus, Fragmens 
JBiographiques. § Calvin, Ep. 207. 



394 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIJST. 



[chap. XI. 



Vandel providing the dinner, and Perrin the supper. Mean- 
while the most sinister rumours were afloat, and appearances 
seemed to show that some violent outbreak was at hand. 
The more moderate of the Libertines wished, indeed, only to 
obtain a meeting of the general assembly, and to turn out 
the newly-admitted citizens. But the opinion of the more 
violent prevailed ; which was, to kill all the foreigners who 
had taken refuge at Geneva for the sake of religion, as well 
as those citizens who supported them ; and it was resolved 
that this execrable project should be carried out on the 
following Sunday, whilst the people were at church. Happily, 
however, the precipitation of some of the conspirators caused 
the plot to break out before it was ripe for execution, and 
thus caused its frustration. It was the custom at Geneva, 
after the watch was set, for one of the council to go round and 
examine the stations; and this duty they took by turns. On 
the night in question it was the turn of a councillor named 
Baudichon to perform this duty. Baudichon was particularly 
obnoxious to the Libertines, not only because he protected the 
refugees, but because he had been elected into the council in 
the room of one of Perrin's party. As he was going his rounds, 
accompanied by two young men, somebody who had been 
struck by a stone, cried out that he was killed. Baudichon ran 
to the spot, when he was attacked by some of the malcontents, 
who drew their swords, exclaiming, " Death to the traitor \" It 
seems probable that it was a concerted plan to draw Baudichon 
thither. The noise increasing, -Aubert, one of the syndics, 
who happened to be near, hastened to the spot with his baton 
of office, and ordered one of the rioters to be seized. In a 
moment he was surrounded by a whole band, exclaiming, 
" Kill the French traitor — the French are sacking the town ! 9 * 
In another quarter Vandel' s wife raised the same cry. The 
whole city was filled with tumult and alarm. Every one ran 
for his arms without knowing why : though a report preva- 
lent at that time, that the French king had ordered the Duke 



CHAP. X!.] 



QUESTION OF CITIZENSHIP. — EIOTS. 



395 



of Guise to take Geneva, probably served to give some 
colouring of probability to the cry raised by the insurgents. 
Perrin himself was on the spot, and under pretence of 
restoring order, endeavoured to get possession of the syndical 
baton, an emblem of power much reverenced at Geneva; 
but Aubert would not give it up. Perrin, however, succeeded 
in snatching the baton from another of the syndics who was 
hastening to the scene of disturbance; but according to 
Calvin * a sort of religious awe had seized upon the rioters, 
who did not respond to his cries of encouragement. Indeed 
Calvin's letter, in which he describes the tumult, seems rather 
exaggerated, and leaves the impression that after all the whole 
affair was little more than a casual street riot j though some 
undoubtedly would have been glad to avail themselves of it 
for more sinister purposes. The mob, however, with Perrin 
and Vandel at their head, proceeded to the house of Baudi- 
chon, and endeavoured to raise a tumult by crying that it 
Was full of armed Frenchmen ; but the attempt failed 
through the cowardice of the assailants, who were frightened 
by the noise of an iron bar which fell upon the pavement. 
Vandel, seeing that his designs were frustrated, now employed 
himself in dispersing the mob ; and the riot ended without 
bloodshed, f On the following day it was determined that 
the matter should be inquired into. The council met, and 
the syndics spent three days in examining witnesses. When 
their depositions were complete, it was resolved to refer the 
matter to the council of Two Hundred, in order to avoid 
any suspicion of prejudice and oppression. In this latter 
assembly, Perrin, and several others who had taken part in 
the riot, had the audacity to take their places as judges ; 
but on the reading of the depositions, when any member of 
the council appeared to be implicated, he was immediately 
ordered to quit the house. Perrin, seeing that the affair was 
likely to take a serious turn, fled from Geneva, and was 



Ep. 207. 



f Spon, ii. 71, note e. 



39G 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI. 



followed by Vandel, Berthelier, and some others. The Two 
Hundred again referred the case to the ordinary council, 
with a recommendation to make a severe example of the 
criminals. Tor a fortnight the fugitives were daily sum- 
moned by the public herald, by sound of trumpet ; but they 
wrote to the council, refusing to appear, unless a public 
guarantee of safety were given to them. On the day 
appointed for their trial five of the fugitives were condemned. 
Before sentence was pronounced upon them, a general 
assembly was convened, in which their crimes were recited ; 
and as they did not appear to purge themselves, their 
condemnation was of course confirmed. Four rioters who 
had been taken were executed on the 21st of May. They 
protested with their last breath that they were not privy 
to any treason or conspiracy; but that they had merely 
endeavoured to prevent the making of so many citizens, and 
to protect the city from the dominion of foreigners.* Calvin, 
however, characterises their confession as one which showed 
them to be too guilty to allow any chance of escape, f 
Sentence was pronounced by the council on Perrin and the 
other fugitives on the 3rd of June. They were condemned 
to lose their heads, and to be quartered; Perrin, moreover, 
to have his hand chopped off, with which he had seized the 
baton of the syndic. This sentence was executed on his effigy. J 
Meanwhile he and his accomplices, having escaped to the 
territories of Berne, begged the mediation of that city in 
their favour. The Bernese accordingly wrote to Geneva, 
tendering their good offices for the pacification of these 
troubles; and on the 13th of June sent deputies with the 
same offer, who were also instructed to mention that Berne 
was willing to treat with Geneva respecting a renewal of the 
alliance. But even this bait did not allure the Genevese to 
retract their sentence on the mutineers. § Calvin describes 
the Bernese deputies who came on their behalf as finding a 



* Ruchat, vi. 139. f Ep. 207. $ Spon,l.c. § Ruchat, vi. 140. 



crap. xi. J THE LIBERTINES DISCOMFITED. 



397 



united city, and the verdict against the fugitives universally 
acquiesced in.* 

The history of this affair, even from Calvin's own pen, 
leaves the impression that the power of Perrin and his party 
was, after all, contemptible. His supporters in the ordinary 
council were few or none. In the council of Two Hundred, 
even though he seems to have tampered with the elections, 
he was in a minority, as appears from the ministers carrying 
their point respecting excommunication ; and also from the 
expulsion and condemnation of Perrin himself by that body. 
That the Genevese people were not for him is shown by the 
almost ludicrous failure of his attempt at insurrection, as well 
as by the sentence passed upon him and his associates being 
confirmed by the general assembly. The whole business 
reads like a caricature of the Catilinarian conspiracy. 

Calvin's proceedings were attributed by his opponents to 
feelings of personal hatred, and a desire of shedding their 
blood; and this charge has been revived by two modern 
historians — namely, by Galiffe, in his "Notices Genealo- 
giques/' and by Thourel, in his te History of Geneva." A 
recent biographer of Calvin has rested one of his main argu- 
ments against the truth of this charge on the assertion that 
such motives were not imputed to Calvin, even by the Liber- 
tines themselves. f But this author must have overlooked a 
passage in Calvin's own letter, where we find it stated that 
such an intention had been ascribed to him ; % nay, Calvin 
was even accused of standing by whilst the prisoners were 
tortured, and of urging on the severest measures against 
them. § The same writer endeavours to make it appear that 

* E P . 207. 

=f " Endlich finde ich gegen die Anklage des herrn Galiffe einen schlagenden 
Beweis daftir, dass Calvin keinesweges gegen diese Leute thatig war in dem 
Umstand dass die Libertiner selbst durchaus nicht Calvin als ihren Verfolger 
anklagen."— P. Henry, iii., Beil. vii., p. 121. 

% " I say nothing about myself, whom they have gratuitously taken for their 
enemy. For as to the shameless charge that I was compassing their death, it 
is too absurd to need any apology." — Ep. 207. § Trechsel, Antitr., i. 205. 



398 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI. 



the affair was a purely political one.* But this is not con- 
sistent with the records of the trials, as cited by himself. 
The sentence on Philibert Berthelier recited that it was 
inflicted " pour les crimes horribles et detestables de conspi- 
ration contre la sainte institution et reformation Chrestienne, 
et contre cette cite, bien public, et tranquillite d'icelle, &c." 
P. Berthelier saved himself by flight, but his brother Francis 
was apprehended, and was one of those who were executed. 
Now, the points on which he was convicted were four, viz., 

1. That, like his brother, he wished to deprive the consistory 
of the right of excommunication, because it made Calvin a 
bishop and prince of Geneva ; and that he had hoped that 
this opportunity would be the means of banishing Calvin. 

2. That he had opposed the reception of the new citizens, 
who would have had the majority in the great council. This 
was styled in the process crimen Icesce majestatis, or high 
treason. 3. That he had expressed himself loudly against 
the doctrine of the Reformation received at Geneva. 4. That 
he had instigated the lieutenant of police to his factious 
conduct, in opposing the citizenship of the French refugees, f 
Now, out of the four grounds here assigned for this sentence 
of death upon Francis Berthelier, it is remarkable that two 
are for attacks upon Calvin's doctrine and discipline, and for 
a desire to deprive him of his ecclesiastical power, and to 
drive him from Geneva. The other two are evidently mere 
pretences. It could have been no treason to oppose the 
admission of the French refugees to the rights of citizenship, 
unless it were done in an illegal manner. Now it is true, 
as we have related, that the lieutenant of police, at the 
instigation of the Libertines, had attempted to overawe the 
council on that point ; but we learn from Calvin himself, 

* « Also hatte er (Calvin) kein kirchliches Interesse dabei zu verfechten." 
— P. Henry, iii., Beil. vii. , p. 1 1 8. Yet he contradicts this himself a few sentences 
afterwards : " Die Verurtheilten wollten die bestehende politische mid religiose 
Ordnung sturtzen." f Ibid., p. 120. 



chap, xi.] SENTENCE ON THE LIBEETINES. 



399 



that the council had overlooked that attempt, and had dis- 
missed the lieutenant himself, the chief actor in it, with a 
simple reprimand.* We can hardly, therefore, think that 
political views were the chief, much less the only motive 
for these executions, as Dr. Henry would have us to believe ;f 
and though Calvin may not have been actuated by any desire 
of personal vengeance, still we cannot but look upon them as 
having been the result of his power, of the intimate connection 
which he had established between church and state, and of 
his determination to uphold his scheme of ecclesiastical 
discipline, without much regard to the means which he used 
for that purpose. 

The Genevese confiscated the estates of the fugitives, made 
any proposition for their recall a capital offence, and ordered 
their wives to quit Geneva. J The refugees were again 
permitted to carry arms ; and on the 8th of September an 
edict was published for suppressing the office of captain- 
general, which had been held by Perrin.§ On the other 
side, the fugitives, under the protection of Berne, committed 
outrages on such citizens of Geneva as they found on the 
Bernese territories, and attacked Calvin and the Genevese 
council with all sorts of reproaches and calumnies. || All 
this tended to augment the ill-feeling which had been 
growing up between the two cities, although their mutual 
interests at this juncture demanded a renewal of the alliance 
which was about to expire. Calvin's stiffness presented the 
greatest obstacle to the accomplishment of this object; and 
Bullinger earnestly begged him to make concessions for the 

* " But because the council were of opinion that nothing should be done by 
arbitrary violence, they pardoned for the present a manifest conspiracy. The 
lieutenant was only reprimanded for having lent himself to those factious men 
in so unjust a cause." — Ep. 207. 

t " Obgleich in diesem Process viel von Reformation und kirchlichen 
Dingen die Rede ist, und derselbe dem Anschein nach einen kirchlich- 
religiosen Zweck hat, so war er doch rein politisch, und das Religiose war nur 
Aeusserliche." — P. Henry, hi., Beil. vii., p. 122. + P. Henry, iii. 380. 

§ Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. || Ruchat, vi. 141. 



400 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN 



[chap. XI. 



sake of peace.* The cantons of Zurich, Bale, and Schaff- 
hausen, exerted their mediation without effect. Berne 
authorised the exiles to make reprisals on Genevese citizens, 
as the government of Geneva refused to restore them to 
their estates. The bailiff of Ternier, in the jurisdiction of 
Berne, in whose province the fugitives had committed some 
violence on Genevese subjects, having been applied to by 
the procureur-general of Geneva for justice, even gave a 
sentence by which he liberated the exiles from the con- 
demnation passed on them by the council of Geneva, and 
condemned the syndics, council, and people of that city, to 
make them reparation, to beg their pardon, and to pay the 
costs of the suit-t This sentence caused much alarm and 
indignation at Geneva ; but, on an appeal to Berne, it was 
superseded. At length, the victory gained by Emmanuel 
Philibert, Prince of Piemont, over Henry II., at St. Quentin, 
in August, 1557, which threatened both cities with danger, 
induced them to renew their alliance in the following 
November. J During this interval of alarm, the Genevese 
having published on the 12th of October a permission for 
all foreigners who wished to do so to retire from their city, 
so far was any one from quitting it, that two days afterwards 
nearly three hundred refugees were admitted as citizens. § 

* Trechsel, i. 206. + Ruchat, vi. 190. $ Ibid., p. 228. 

§ " On recoit trois-cents habitans le meme matin, sea voir, deux-cents Francais, 
cinquante Anglais, vingt-cinq Italiens, quatre Espagnols, &c. ; tellement que 
l'antichambre du Conseil ne les pouvoit tous contenir." — Registres, 14 Oct., 
1557. Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 



chap, xii.] CONTROVERSY WITH THE LUTHERANS. 401 



CHAPTER XII. 

Controversy with the Lutherans — Attacks of Westphal — Calvin answers him — 
Calvin's violence — Urges Melancthon to declare himself — Mission of Farel 
and Beza — Their disingenuousness — Bullinger offended — The Marian 
exiles — " Troubles of Frankfort " — Lutheran persecutions — Calvin visits 
Frankfort — Return of the Marian exiles. 

During these disputes with his enemies at home, and with 
the Bernese clergy, Calvin was also engaged in a controversy 
with some of the Lutheran divines on the subject of the 
eucharist. Whilst he was residing at Strasburgh, the 
Lutherans had regarded him as belonging to their church ; 
although in the confession which he had delivered in to 
the ministers of that city, in 1539, he had as little recog- 
nised a corporal presence in the eucharist as a merely 
symbolical one. The Swiss church had also suspected him 
of Lutheranism; but the Zurich Consensus in 1549 at once 
dissipated this feeling, and altered his position with regard 
to the Lutherans. In that confession it was taught that the 
bread and wine are signs, with which (but not in, under, 
or through them) the true body and blood of Christ are 
communicated to the faithful by a peculiar operation of the 
Holy Ghost. Thus, although the belief in the actual presence 
of Christ in his human nature, and in his reception through 
the mouth, and consequently the literal interpretation of the 
words of the institution, were rejected; yet this doctrine 
was not actually so much at variance with the Lutheran as 
it appeared to be. For Calvin's contained the following 
propositions: 1. Though the bread and wine are mere 
signs, they are not empty signs, but pledges of the thing 
signified. 2. The body of Christ is really and effectually 

D D 



402 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. xii. 



present in the supper, but not locally and in substance, since 
his body is in heaven, and no body possesses ubiquity. 
3. The body of Christ is actually received, and not merely 
in imagination, at the time when the bread is taken : and 
this through the operation of faith, in a mystical and hyper- 
physical manner. These, says Matthes,* are the chief 
points of Calvin's doctrine of the eucharist, as gradually 
developed in his different works; and the question arose 
whether such a presence could be called a true and actual 
one ? The more bigoted Lutheran maintained that it could 
not, and required an exact conformity with Luther's 
propositions. 

In the Wittenberg Concordat of 1536, the Lutheran 
divines had, indeed, contented themselves with the general 
idea of a corporal presence, without deeming it essential to 
explain the manner of it. Nay, Melancthon, and some of 
the more moderate men of that church, seemed to be 
gradually inclining towards Calvin's view; and there was 
some prospect, since Luther's death, that all the Protestant 
churches would be ultimately united with regard to that 
sacrament.f In the year 1552, however, this tendency 
towards harmony was disturbed by Joachim Westphal, a 
Lutheran minister of Hamburgh, who published an attack 
upon the Zurich Consensus of Calvin and Bullinger.f In 
this book Westphal mooted the difficult question of the 
manner of the presence ; and thus, by wishing to establish a 
dogmatical conclusion, put an end to all hopes of agreement. 
He was very severe and sarcastic upon the Zwinglians and 
Calvinists, and enumerated twenty-eight different inter- 
pretations of the words of the institution, made by the 
Sacramentaries, whereas the Lutherans had always been of 

* Leben Melancthons, p. 341. 
+ P. Henry, iii. 298, et seq. Compare Calvin, Epp. et Eesp., Ep. 170. 
X The title of Westphal's book was, " Farrago confusanearum et inter se 
dissidentium Opinionum de Coznd Domini, ex Sacramentariorum Libris congesta" — 
Ruchat, vi. 6. 



CHAP. XII.] 



ATTACKS OF WESTPHAL. 



403 



one mind. He excited other doctors of his church to push 
the quarrel vigorously; and concluded with declaring that 
the blasphemies of the Sacramentaries deserved to be refuted 
by the rod of the magistrate rather than by the pen. 

As neither Calvin, nor any of the Swiss ministers, noticed 
this performance, Westphal put forth another tract in the 
following year,* in which he exhorted the Lutherans to 
defend their doctrine against the progress of Zwinglianism. 
John Stoltz, a theologian of Wittenberg, also published a 
" Defence of Luther," and thus the flame of controversy was 
lighted up again throughout Germany. The feeling thus 
excited soon discovered itself in an act of barbarity dis- 
graceful to men professing to be Christians. In September, 
1553, John A'Lasco, a noble Pole, and superintendent of the 
foreign Reformed churches in London, in order to avoid the 
persecution then breaking out in England, hired some vessels 
for the purpose of transporting himself, and one hundred 
and seventy-five other persons, to the continent. A'Lasco's 
vessel was driven, by stress of weather, into Elsinore ; but, 
though the storm was still raging, the Lutheran magistrates 
compelled him and his company to re-embark immediately, 
though all they asked was an asylum for the winter. They 
experienced no better reception in the German towns. 
Lubeck and Rostock refused to harbour them; Hamburgh 
would only afford shelter to A'Lasco's children till the 
spring. At length the fugitives found refuge at Dantzic, 
and A'Lasco himself an honourable reception at Emden, 
from the Countess Anne of Oldenburgh. 

Calvin was first informed of these cruelties by Peter 
Martyr, who was then at Strasburgh, in a letter dated in 
May 1554. Calvin now determined to take up his pen 
against Westphal, who had made himself conspicuous in 
persecuting the fugitives, whom he styled " the devil's 
martyrs." In his second tract against Westphal, Calvin 

* Entitled, " Recta Fides de Coend Domini" &c. — Ruchat, 1. c. 
D D % 



404 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



£CHAI». XII. 



alludes to this subject as follows : " His outcry agaiust the 
poor fugitives is a very evident mark of his cruelty. He has 
not contented himself with preventing them from finding 
shelter, and with obliging them to disperse in the midst of a 
very rigorous winter, when they begged to repose a little, and, 
as it were, to recover breath ; but, as far as lies in his power, 
would exterminate them from the world. But though pity 
and compassion aroused a just anger in me, with which, 
unless I had a heart harder than iron, I could not but be 
touched on seeing these strange calamities of my brethren ; 
yet I confess, nevertheless, that I have been deceived. 
I thought that some cause had been given to Westphal, and 
those of his sentiments, to be thus unreasonably hot : but 
I now see that our not approving of their conclusions suffices 
to incite them to a strange and barbarous cruelty against all 
of us indifferently ; and that they are bursting with such 
venomous pride against us, that they would rather have peace 
with the Turks, and brotherhood with the Papists, than any 
truce with us."* 

But, however indignant against Westphal, whose conduct 
had very naturally aroused his anger, Calvin did not at first 
enter into a direct and personal controversy with him, but 
rather made use of the occasion to reassert his doctrine 
respecting the Lord's Supper ; with which view he got 
Bullinger, and the other Swiss ministers, to unite with him 
in publishing a common manifesto, which may be. regarded 
as a renewal and confirmation of the Zurich Consensus. 
In this work Calvin did not attack "Westphal by name; 
but he alluded to him in several passages that could not be 
mistaken.f Calvin was apt to give way to temper in his 
controversies, and to treat his opponents with a coarseness 

* See the French tract, quoted by P. Henry, iii. 303, note, 
f u And that nobody may consider the door of repentance to be shut against 
him, I will shortly allude to only one person, and that without mentioning his 
name." — Consensio, &c, Opera, viii. 651, B. 



chap, xii.] CALVIN ANSWEKS WESTPHAL. 



405 



which exceeded even the limits permitted by the manners of 
his time. As the book, however, was to be subscribed by 
Bullinger, the manuscript was sent to him for approval. 
Bullinger refused to put his name to it till some of these 
offensive allusions were struck out ; and thus it was owing to 
him that it appeared clothed in more decent language.* In 
a letter to Bullinger on this subject, Calvin says: "I have 
corrected those things in my epistle which seemed too harshly 
spoken against Joachim. Yet I applied the term nebulo 
(rascal) to him in another sense than you suppose. I did not 
mean criminal or furcifer, but as the ancients spoke, a 
worthless skulking fellow, or tenebrio. I have also expunged 
the epithet beast" f This last was another pet term of 
Calvin's. 

The work was published towards the close of 1554, pre- 
ceded by an epistle thus amended, addressed to the faithful 
ministers of Christ at Zurich, Berne, Basle, S chaff hausen, 
and several other Swiss towns. A reprint of the work 
appeared the following year at Zurich, with a postscript by 
Bullinger. Calvin also published a French version of it, in 
order that the Genevese might be made acquainted with the 
merits of the question. The pith of its doctrine is contained 
in the following sentence : " Christ, therefore, is absent from 
us in body : but dwelling spiritually within us, so lifts us up 
towards heaven as to transfuse into us the vivifying power of 
his flesh, just as we are nourished by the vital heat of the sun, 
by means of its rays." J 

Westphal published an answer to Calvin's work at 
Frankfort, in which he again outrageously attacked A' Lasco 
and his brother exiles. Calvin hesitated whether he should 
reply. We find him writing to Farel (October 10th, 1555), as 
follows : " Westphal has published a virulent book against 



* Leben Calvins, iii., Beil. 117. 
f MS. Tig., Nov. 13th, 1554, apud P. Henry, iii. 307, note. 
$ Consensio, &c, p. 658, A. 



406 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xn. 



me, to which I know not whether I ought to reply. Some 
of my friends ask me to do so : when I shall have thoroughly 
read it, the Lord will give me counsel."* The attacks made 
upon him on all sides by the Lutherans, and especially by 
Brenz, in his sermons at Wurtemberg, seem at length to have 
induced him to take up his pen ; and in 1556 appeared his 
second work against Westphal, entitled, " A Second Defence 
of the Pious and Orthodox Faith concerning the Sacraments 
against the Calumnies of Joachim Westphal." This was 
answered in the following year not only by Westphal himself, 
but by Schneff and some others; so that Calvin complained 
to Bullinger that the Lutherans seemed to have entered into 
a conspiracy to overwhelm them with books, f The contro- 
versy grew hotter as it proceeded. Calvin was again reproved 
by Bullinger for his virulence ; and attempted to excuse 
himself by the haste in which his work was written, and by 
an attempt at a joke. In a letter to that pastor he says : " I 
see that I have been rather more vehement than I had 
intended, but, in some way or another, I forgot myself in 
dictating the book. If it should give offence I can at least 
testify that it was not written by me. But, joking apart, I 
hope it will be acceptable enough to you and to the rest of 
the brethren, not to stand in need of an excuse." % 

A whole year for reflection did not produce any amend- 
ment in this respect. Calvin was again attacked, and again 
replied with still greater violence and coarseness. § Even 
his friend Farel saw and lamented this failing. Though he 
approved of Calvin's defence of the Consensus, he advised 
him to confine himself to the thing, and to spare persons. 
He exhorted him not to be betrayed into the same violence 
as his opponents ; by which he would afford an agreeable 
spectacle to their enemies, and offend those who, though 

* Ep. 216. f P. Henry, iii. 315. % MS. Tig., Jan. 23rd, 1556, Ibid., 317. 
§ This was his " Ultima A dtnonitio Joctwnis Calvini ad Toctchimum Westphctlum" 
&c, published in August, 1557. 



CHAP. XII.] 



calvin's violence. 



407 



they opposed him, were still his brethren. * Calvin, however, 
seems to have considered that he was doing God an acceptable 
service by these virulent outbreaks, and by incurring the 
odium which they could not fail to draw down upon him. 
In a- letter to Farel, in August, 1557, he says: "With 
regard to Westphal and the rest, it was difficult to follow 
your advice and be calm. You call those c brothers/ who, 
if that name be offered to them by us, do not only reject, 
but execrate it. And how ridiculous should we appear in 
bandying the name of brother with those who look upon us 
as the worst of heretics ! " f And in another to Bullinger 
about the same time we find : " You shall judge how 
dexterously I have treated the Saxons. I have sent the book 
before it was complete rather than held you in suspense. 
Though I know that I shall excite the hatred of them all, it 
will be no small consolation to me if, in the discharge of my 
duty, I shall at least gain your approbation. I have, indeed, 
not hesitated cheerfully and fearlessly to provoke the fury of 
those beasts against me, because I am confident that it will 
be pleasing to God ! " f 

In reading such passages as these, we are almost over- 
whelmed with surprise, that a man of Calvin's intellect and 
learning could, in spite of the repeated admonitions of his 
best friends, have persevered in so utterly misinterpreting 
and perverting the mild and charitable precepts of the 
gospel. That, when unblinded by passion, he could see the 
fit and proper course, appears from other letters. Thus, 
writing to Schaling, a pastor of the church of Ratisbon, in 
April, 1557, he says : "It is, indeed, to be lamented, that we 
who profess the same gospel should be distracted by different 
opinions on the subject of the Lord's Supper, which ought 
to be the chief bond of union among us. But what is by 
far more atrocious, we contend with as much hostility as 



* Kirchhofer, ii. 130. t MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 326. 

X MS. Tig., Ibid. 



408 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII. 



if we had no christian connection ; and the greater part of 
those who differ from us, I know not from what impulse, boil 
over as intemperately against us as if our religion were wholly- 
different. As there was at first so much discrepancy on this 
subject, I do not wonder that Luther, who was of a vehement 
temper, was somewhat warmer than he ought to have been. 
But now when we are agreed as to the chief points, namely, 
for what purpose the Lord instituted sacraments; what is 
their proper use, efficacy, and dignity; and what the 
advantages they procure for us; the remaining articles of 
controversy might surely have been treated with more 
moderation. With regard to myself, after I had faithfully 
endeavoured for fifteen years to frame my doctrine so 
as to avoid discord as much as an ingenuous profession of 
the truth would allow, the importunity of your countryman, 
Westphal, dragged me into an odious dispute. Yet I 
have diligently restrained whatever bitterness he extorted 
from me, lest he should involve others besides himself: and 
I will always take care that the churches shall not be torn 
and divided through my fault, nor that any one shall be 
injured by me, unless he professedly attacks me." * 

It is difficult to reconcile a passage like this with the decla- 
rations before quoted, or to consider it as sincere. The last 
avowal it contains is striking. After enumerating and dwelling 
upon the causes and the blessings of peace, and lamenting 
the want of union as contrary to the spirit of Christianity, 
Calvin declares himself ready to renounce all these excellent 
precepts the moment he is personally attacked, and to descend 
into a contest of virulence and abuse with the first intem- 
perate adversary that may assail him ! Did it never occur 
to him that the conduct and example of a Christian minister 
may be at least as efficacious for good as the most methodical 
and elaborate arguments, or the choicest vituperation in 
the very best Latin? Did he always forget the Christian 



Ep. 236. 



CHAP. XII.'J 



calvin's violence. 



409 



precept, to forgive our enemies, and to offer another cheek to 
those who smite us? In Westphal, however, Calvin had 
found his match in violence. He grew tired of the contest, 
and left Beza to finish it. 

We have remarked that in this controversy the Lutheran 
church was itself divided ; and that a considerable portion of 
it, at the head of which was Melancthon, inclined towards 
Calvin's views. That Reformer had, indeed, rejected the 
doctrine of the physical conjunction of the body of Christ with 
the sacramental bread, before he knew Calvin, as appears 
from some letters addressed to Schneff, Agricola, and Brenz, 
in the years 1534 and 1535.* "When the controversy broke 
out afresh, Calvin earnestly pressed Melancthon to declare 
himself, but he kept aloof. In August, 1554, when Calvin 
was busy with his first work against Westphal, we find him 
writing to Melancthon as follows : " You see how ignorant 
and turbulent men are renewing in your parts the sacra- 
mental controversy, whilst the good lament and complain 
of the encouragement which your silence gives them ; for not- 
withstanding the audacity natural to ignorance, there can be 
no doubt that, if you could make up your mind to avow your 
real sentiments more freely, you might, in some degree at 
least, put a stop to their violence. At the same time, I do 
not so far forget the condition of human nature, as not to 
note, and bid others note, what sort of men you have to deal 
with; how anxious and perplexed the disturbed state of 
affairs must render you, and by how many obstacles you 
must be impeded. Yet nothing can justify you in giving 
the reins, by means of your dissimulation, to those headstrong 
men who disturb and dissipate our churches ; to say nothing 
of the preciousness to ourselves of an ingenuous profession 
of the true faith. You are aware that for more than thirty 
years the eyes of multitudes are fixed upon you, and that they 
would desire nothing more than to obey you. Surely you are 

* See Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 349. 



140 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XI 



not ignorant that the ambiguous mode of teaching to which 
you too timidly confine yourself, causes many to remain in 
doubt. If you cannot sincerely and truly profess what would 
be very useful to be known, you might at least endeavour 
to restrain the violence of those who create a causeless 
disturbance. What, I pray, do they wish ? Luther professed, 
throughout his life, that all he contended for was the efficacy 
of the sacraments. Well, it is agreed that they are not 
empty symbols, but really impart what they typify : that 
in baptism the efficacy of the Holy Ghost is present, to 
cleanse and regenerate us; that the Lord's Supper is a 
spiritual feast, in which we are really fed with the body and 
blood of Christ. The cause, therefore, seems too promising 
than that the fear of odium should deter us from appeasing 
the strife raised by certain absurd persons ; into whose broils, 
however, you can hardly avoid being dragged in the post 
which you occupy."* 

Although in this letter Calvin appears very desirous of 
obtaining the concurrence and co-operation of Melancthon, 
he speaks very slightingly, not to say contemptuously, of him, 
in a letter addressed to Sleidan, on the very same day. In 
this he says, "How far I should congratulate myself on 
Philip's agreeing with me on one point I know not, when in 
the chief heads of doctrine he either sells himself to the 
philosophers and opposes the truth, or, lest he should excite 
the anger of certain persons against him, cunningly, or, at 
all events, disingenuously conceals his opinions. "f 

In the spring of 1555, we find Calvin again urging 
Melancthon on the same subject, and exhorting him to 
declare himself, without fearing either banishment or death. J 
The object of this letter seems to have been to extract an 
opinion from Melancthon in writing ; as Calvin mentions his 
work against Westphal, which had been subscribed by the 
Swiss churches, and states, that he was anxiously expecting 



* Ep. 179. 



f Ep. 183, Aug. 27th, 1554. 



X Ep. 203. 



chap, xii.] UEGES MELANCTHON TO DECLARE HIMSELF. 411 



Melancthon' s opinion npon it. The latter, in a very short 
answer,* purposely avoids the subject, and says that he shall 
write nothing concerning Calvin's opponents. Another letter 
of Calvin's, in August of the same year, closes the corre- 
spondence, f To this, Melancthon, who probably disliked 
his importunity, seems to have returned no answer, and 
their intercourse ceased for two years ; for when Calvin next 
addressed him on the occasion of the diet of Worms, in 
August 1557, he complained that he had not heard from him 
for that space of time. J Melancthon, however, went to his 
grave without declaring himself. 

It can hardly be doubted that Melancthon' s example would 
have gone nigh to settle this controversy : and that had he 
openly avowed the sentiments he really entertained respecting 
the eucharist, he would have been followed by the greater 
part of the Lutheran church. In his last work against 
Westphal, Calvin wrote that he could be as little separated 
from Melancthon on this point as he could from his own 
heart. § On the other hand, Melancthon' s silence gave the 
opposite party an opportunity to claim him for their own, 
for which purpose they collected passages out of his earlier 
writings ; and Westphal gave out that he would prove to all 
the world that Melancthon, at all events during the lifetime 
of Luther, had never thought with the sacramentaries. || 

Melancthon's conduct, by his own confession, proceeded 
from the fear of offending the court. " Had he followed 
the dictates of his own heart," says Matthes,^" " he would 
undoubtedly have declared for the Calvinistic view ; but how 
could he venture upon this when the court deemed it a point 
of honour to have true Lutheran teachers ? To the electoral 
councillor, TJlrich Mordeisen, who had required him not 

* Calvin, Epp. et Resp. Ep. 205. t Ep. 210. 

X " How it happens that you have not answered my letters for three whole 
years I know not." — Ep. 242. Triennio here must be either a slip of Calvin's, or 
a misprint for biennio. § Opera, viii. 687, B. 

|| Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 351. U Ibid. 



412 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII. 



to withhold his opinion any longer, he wrote in 1556 : "I am 
confident that in this article your court will not tolerate the 
defence of the true doctrine. I would therefore rather not 
begin at all, than be ordered to lay aside what I had begun, 
to the prejudice of truth." This subserviency was the weak 
point of Melancthon's character, as he was himself fully 
sensible. Thus we find him writing to Christopher von 
Carlo witz, in 1548 : "I am, perhaps, by nature of a some- 
what servile disposition, and I have before endured an 
altogether unseemly servitude ; as Luther more frequently 
obeyed his temperament, in which was no little conten- 
tiousness, than regarded his own dignity and the common 
good."* 

Some occurrences in the year 1557, though rather out 
of their chronological order, may be mentioned here, as 
forming a sequel to the controversy just described. In the 
spring of that year, the Waldenses, in the valley of Angrogne, 
being threatened with extirpation, appealed to their friends 
at Geneva and Neufchatel for assistance. Farel and Beza 
undertook their cause; and after visiting Berne, Zurich, 
Schaffhausen, and Basle, which towns they persuaded to 
send embassies to the French court in favour of the perse- 
cuted Waldenses, proceeded to Montbelliard and Strasburgh^ 
and thence into the electorate. Though everywhere well 
received, Farel and Beza could not help remarking some 
feeling of animosity towards them among the Lutherans, on 
account of Calvin's books, as well as some misgivings with 
regard to their orthodoxy on the subject of the sacraments. 
Diller, the elector's chaplain, seemed to accept what they 
said in explanation ; but the elector himself was absent, and 
it was necessary that he should be satisfied. Farel and Beza 
referred to Calvin's " Institutes;" but as the elector required a 
more explicit declaration, they handed in a formal confession 
of faith. They were met with the same objections at the 



* Matthes, Leben Melancthons, pp. 288, 289. 



CHAP. XII.] 



MISSION OF FAEEL AND BEZA. 



413 



court of Duke Christopher of Wurtemberg, where they 
were given to understand that nothing could be done for 
the Waldenses, unless they produced the confession of that 
people concerning the Lord's Supper. In vain Farel and 
Beza affirmed that the Waldensian creed on that point 
was the same as that expressed in the Consensus of the 
Swiss churches. A German version of the confession of 
the Waldenses was produced, in which it was pointed out 
that they spoke too lightly on that sacred subject. Farel 
and Beza were also again invited to give in a confession ; and 
the friendly reception which they had met with, the desire of 
saving the Waldenses, and the hope of making a step towards 
the union of the Swiss and Lutheran churches, induced them 
to comply. A confession was accordingly tendered, which 
purported to be agreeable to the principles of the Swiss and 
Savoyard churches, and to which they signed their names. 
It was much the same as that given to Diller, only drawn up 
with greater care ; and it was briefly expressed, in order that it 
might be explained at some future opportunity. "Words were 
employed which had not hitherto been used in the confessions 
of the Swiss churches, as substantia and representandi, but 
which Farel and Beza thought unobjectionable, and whose 
meaning they limited by other terms ; but which were sub- 
sequently taken, and indeed very naturally, in their absolute 
sense. In short, it is plain that they had tampered with the 
Swiss confession : " But/-' says Kirchofer, " as they were not 
acting in the name of the church, but only in their private 
capacity, they feared no danger, and still less wished to be 
false to the Consensus."* How two public ambassadors 
were acting only in a private capacity is not explained. They 
themselves, however, thought that they had done a good thing; 
they fancied that they had brought over Duke Christopher, 
and that a union with the Lutherans would be easy. When 
Farel and Beza returned, they said nothing of these confessions, 



* Leben Farels/n. 135. 



414 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN". 



[chap. XII. 



not even to Calvin. Shortly afterwards, however, copies 
were sent both to Zurich and Geneva. Bullinger and the 
Zurich ministers were naturally indignant, and regarded 
the whole affair as a concerted scheme. When Far el heard 
of the anger of the Zurichers, he sent the confessions to 
Viret for examination, and afterwards to Calvin ; by whom 
they were entirely approved of. Calvin pardoned the silence 
of his friends ; * and he and Beza sent letters of apology 
and explanation to Bullinger, in which the former main- 
tained that the confessions were a true exposition of their 
faith ; whereupon Bullinger charged him with having the 
duplicity of Bucer. f Calvin wished a general synod to be 
called, to settle these differences, but this was opposed by 
Bullinger. 

Beza, living under the jurisdiction of Berne, had more 
cause for alarm, since the Bernese disliked all such 
assumptions of personal authority as he had been guilty 
of: but Haller, the Bernese minister, was generous enough 
to express his dissatisfaction only to Bullinger. Yet, in a 
letter to that pastor, he could not help saying : " You see it 
is not without reason that I distrust the French ministers ; 
they are crafty fellows, and infected with the spirit of 
Bucer." J 

This breach can hardly be said to have been healed, when 
another occurred on the same subject in the veiy same year. 
Persecution had broken out in Paris against the Calvinists. 
A congregation which had assembled in the night-time, in 
the Rue St. Jaques, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, was 
surprised by the police, and many persons captured, among 
whom were ladies belonging to the families of the highest 
nobility. The fact of their assembling in the night-time was 
made a handle for the foulest calumnies, and witnesses were 
suborned to depose to circumstances which found belief 
among the credulous multitude. Twenty-one of the con- 



Ruchat, vi. 205. 



f P. Henry, iii. 345. 



X Kirchhofer, ii. 138. 



chap, xn.] DISIKGENUOUSNESS OF FAREL AND BEZA. 415 

gregation were burnt, by seven at a time.* The Parisian 
Protestants sent their preacher, Carmel, and also Bude, into 
Switzerland, to acquaint their friends there with their 
situation, and to beg their assistance and intercession. 

Farel and Beza again undertook this mission. Accom- 
panied by the Parisian deputies they visited Zurich, and 
succeeded in making peace with Bullinger. They thence 
proceeded to Berne, and prevailed upon the magistrates of 
that town, as they had likewise done at Zurich, to send an 
embassy to France in favour of the persecuted Protestants. 
Thence they proceeded to Strasburgh and Worms ; at which 
latter place a diet was sitting for the purpose of adjusting 
religious differences. Farel tried to induce Calvin to attend 
this diet ; but he refused, though he wrote several letters to 
Melancthon, who took an active part in it. 

Melancthon received the missionaries in the most friendly 
manner ; but, as on the former occasion, a confession of faith 
was required of them before they could be recommended to 
the German princes. They accordingly handed in one which 
seems to make tolerably large concessions, but which did not 
satisfy the German theologians. f They thought that it 
contained only the doctrine of the Swiss churches, and 
demanded such a confession as the French prisoners them- 
selves would make ; and it was likewise mentioned that it 
was desirable that Farel and the other deputies should 
express their approval of the Confession of Augsburg. Beza 
declared his readiness to do so, provided the article on the 
eucharist were taken with Melancthon's explanation, viz. : 

* Beza, Vita Calv. 

+ It is in Ruchat, vi. 212, et seq. It states, among other things, that the 
symbols are not merely naked signs, but that the thing itself (i. e., the body and 
blood of Christ) is truly and certainly joined with them, whether they be 
proposed to the faithful or to the unfaithful (mais que les symboles, par rapport a 
Dieu qui promet et qui offre, ont toujours la chose meme veritablement et cer- 
tainement jointe avec eux, soit qu'ils soient proposes aux fideles, soit aux 
infideles.) This was certainly going beyond Calvin, who held that Christ's body 
was received only through faith. 



416 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII. 



" We follow the words of St. Paul ; the bread is the commu- 
nication of the body : that, is, that, when we take it, the 
Son of God is really present." * This, though rather 
obscure, was considered sufficiently satisfactory; and the 
German theologians gave the deputies a letter to the Duke 
of Wurtemberg, in which they said, among other things: 
" That they had never approved of secret assemblies, and 
especially these nocturnal ones, in which a great many men, 
women, and children met in isolated houses ; that they had 
previously dissuaded these people from them, and told them 
it was better that every one should privately read and pray 
in his own house with his family and servants; exhorting 
them to teach the children their catechism, and establish 
other exercises of piety at home; and to endeavour as 
much as possible to take the sacraments in places where 
there were public and established churches ; and, if they could 
not do so, to abstain altogether. However, as the mischief 
had been done, they had asked the deputies who had come to 
solicit an intercession for the prisoners, for a confession of 
faith ; and, they continued, as this confession perfectly cor- 
responds with ours — except that on one article they express 
themselves too obscurely (on which, however, they may be 
easily admonished in a legitimate synod) — we would not, in 
so cruel a persecution, refuse them the consolation of inter- 
ceding." t Letters to the same purport were also addressed 
to the Elector Palatine, the Landgrave Philip, and to the 
Count Palatine. The French ministers, therefore, met with 
a tolerably easy success, considering the disputes which had 
recently been so violent ; and that the high Lutheran party 
mustered in such strength at Worms, that Melancthon was 
forced to make many concessions, and even to reject in 

* " Sequimur verba Pauli : Panis est icoivcovla corporis ; i. e., res ilia, quam 
cum sumimus, Filius Dei vere adest." — Matthes, p. 362.. Melancthon himself 
appears to have drawn up the confession of the deputies. See Schlosser, 
Leben Bezas, p. 76, note. f Ruchat, vi. 217. 



CHAP. XII.] 



BULLINGER OFFENDED. 



417 



substance the Zwinglian doctrine, and to reprobate those who 
would not accept the Augsburg confession.* 

These proceedings were a new rock of offence to Bullinger 
and the Zurichers. An angry correspondence ensued between 
Bullinger and Calvin, which seems to have lasted for a year 
or two, in which the former complained of Beza's having 
adopted the Lutheran confession, and charged Calvin him- 
self with bad faith, in having introduced into the laws of the 
Genevese academy certain words not recognised by the 
Zurich Consensus. In answer to the former charge, Calvin 
pleaded the necessity of the case ; f to the latter he replied with 
some warmth and haughtiness. " The accusation," he said, 
" of bad faith has inflicted a deeper wound. You complain 
that in our academic laws the word substance has been used, 
though it had been agreed that it should not be employed. 
What agreement you may have made for yourself I know not, 
but certainly this never escaped from me. But I did not 
object, forsooth, when you made such a proposal : — as if many 
other ill-considered things were not said, which I should be 
sorry to mention. A false reproach is bitter • but to a free man 
domination is intolerable. I have not yet learned to speak 
servilely at the nod of another, nor will I henceforth begin. 
But that you might not be ignorant of what I shall con- 
stantly uphold, if perchance I be summoned to a conference, 
I have endeavoured to explain the sum of my opinion, which 
I will change neither publicly nor privately. If my letter 
should seem an angry one, consider the provocation I have 
had; for I would rather have you for a judge than for an 
adversary." 

To this paragraph of the letter Bullinger appended the 

* Matthes, p. 364, et seq. In a letter to Bullinger, in February, 1558, 
Calvin says : " The unhappy issue of the conference at Worms does not trouble 
me so much as Melancthon's levity is odious and vexatious to me." — MS. Gen., 
apud P. Henry, iii. 349. 

+ See Calvin's letter to Bullinger, Dec. 10th, 1559, in Schlosser, Leben Bezos, 
Beil. 299, et seq. 

E E 



418 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYHST. 



[chap. XII. 



following manuscript note : — " If words like these occur in a 
private letter, and Calvin talks so bitterly out of a conference, 
what would he do in one? Is not this passage proof 
enough that we must not come into personal collision ? " * 
Subsequently, however, this breach appears to have been 
healed ; for in a letter to Bullinger, in May, 1560, we find 
Calvin expressing his intimate agreement with him, and 
remarking that there was nothing to be hoped for from " the 
apes of Luther/' f Indeed Calvin's violent controversy with 
Westphal was pledge enough that he was not likely to adopt 
their views : and in another letter to an anonymous corre- 
spondent about the same time, he says : " Luther's apes — for 
he left but few imitators — unless one immediately agrees 
with them when they utter the name of Wittenberg, are 
raising great disturbances everywhere. When the Consensus 
of our church with that of Zurich was published, I had not 
the slightest apprehension that Westphal would make it an 
occasion of controversy. I was then compelled to embark in 
the contest, to tame the beast's ferocity. Afterwards I was 
surprised to find that many were infected with the same 
fury. But I think that I have so exposed their ignorance, 
and their wicked calumnies, that all persons of common 
sense will despise their pride and vain boastings/' J 

Shortly after the breaking out of this controversy with 
Westphal, Calvin's mediation was sought to heal a breach in 
the church of the English exiles settled at Frankfort. As it 
was this breach which gave rise to the " Separation," and to 
the Puritan party afterwards destined to figure so con- 
spicuously in the civil, as well as in the ecclesiastical, history 
of England, it will be proper to detail the origin of it at 
some length. 

The flight of John A'Lasco from the Marian persecution 

* See P. Henry, hi., Beil. 112. For me non rectd mente, in that page, we 
should read, me non reclamante. See Schlosser, 1. c, p. 302. 

+ Leben Calvins, iii. 351. $ Ep. 292, April 22nd, 1560. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE MARIAN EXILES. 



419 



has been already mentioned. It is computed that on the 
same occasion upwards of 800 Protestants left the shores of 
England for the continent, in the hope of finding an asylum 
either in Germany or Switzerland. In the northern towns of 
the former country they were, like A'Lasco, cruelly repulsed; 
so that whatever might have been the desire of Cranmer, and 
the other English Reformers, to unite with the Lutheran 
church, the feeling does not appear to have been reciprocated. 
In the southern parts of Germany, however, and especially 
in Switzerland, the exiles were kindly received, and allowed 
to establish churches. 

In these offices of friendship and good-will the towns of 
Zurich and Basle, and the ministers Bullinger, Zanchy, 
Wolphius, and Gualter, particularly distinguished themselves. 
As a means of subsistence, the exiles in some places obtained 
permission to engage in the manufacture of English cloth ; * 
but as they were for the most part men of education, some 
supported themselves by keeping school, some by writing 
books, and some by correcting the press. These last were 
principally attracted to Basle, the printers of which town 
had at that time the reputation of excelling all others ; and 
the English refugees are said to have been esteemed by 
them as careful and diligent correctors of the press, t Here 
John Fox, the martyrologist, superintended the press of 
Oporinus ; and, at spare hours, began in Latin his ecclesias- 
tical history, which he afterwards published at home in 
English. He was too poor to keep a servant ; yet, notwith- 
standing the attention he was thus compelled to pay to his 
domestic affairs, as well as his labours in the office of 
Oporinus, he wrote his history entirely with his own hand. 
Other distinguished literary characters among the exiles were 
John Knox, and his opponent Aylmer, afterwards Bishop of 
London ; who answered Knox's u First Blast of the Trumpet 

* Original Letters (Parker Society), Part i. } p. 167, note. 
=f Strype, Cranmer, i. 511. 
E E 2 



420 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII. 



against the Regiment of Women," by his " Harborough for 
faithful Subjects." At Basle were also William Turner, 
afterwards Dean of Wells, and John Bale, the late Bishop 
of Ossory. The former, a man of a facetious turn, was the 
author of u A new Book of Spiritual Physic for divers Diseases 
of the Gentry and Nobility of England," and of the " Hunting 
of the Romish Fox." Bale has thus gratefully recorded the 
reports which he had received of the entertainment which the 
English exiles met with at Zurich : " They lived together," 
he tells us, " in one house like a college of students. That 
Bullinger took a fatherly care of them, and that by the full 
consent of the citizens." And he adds, "that those that 
were daily with him at Basil, related those ministers' care, 
their trouble, and their paternal affection towards them, 
while they lived under the shadow of that city, covered 
against the heat of persecution with the love of the whole 
people. They related also to him the incredible munificence 
of the magistrates, who most liberally offered, by Bullinger, 
subsistence by provision of bread, corn, and wine, as much 
as might suffice to sustain thirteen or fourteen of them. 
But the English refusing to be so burthensome to them 
(having relief elsewhere), they of the city were sorry that 
some opportunity of gratifying them was wanting." * 
Parkhurst, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, was among those 
who found shelter at Zurich ; and having a turn for poetry 
in his youth, gave expression to his gratitude in some copies 
of Latin verses. Among them were the following lines, 
which he caused to be engraved on a rock near Zurich, and 
which his fellow-exiles subscribed with their names : 

u Huic insculpserunt Angli sua nomina saxo 

Caram qui patriam deseruere suam : 
Deseruere suam patriam pro nomine Christi, 

Q,uos fovet ut cives urbs Tigurina suos. 
Urbs Tigurina piis tutum se praebet asylum : 

0 ! dabitur grates quando referre pares !" 



* Strype, Annals, ii., Part i., p. 343. 



CHAP. XII.] 



THE M ASIAN EXILES. 



421 



It is gratifying to think that the opportunity desired in the 
last line occurred sooner than might have been expected. 
After the return of the exiles to England, a correspondence 
was kept up for a considerable time between the chief of 
them and the Zurich divines, accompanied with a mutual 
interchange of kindly offices.* 

This pleasing picture of christian charity and brotherly 
love was, however, soon destined to be blotted and defaced. 
The very time of their misfortune and exile became the 
inappropriate season of heart-burnings and quarrels among the 
English refugees. We have seen, in the case of Dr. Hooper, 
that the seeds of dissension had been already sown in the 
English church. There was a party that wished to carry 
the Reformation in England to a greater extent than 
Cranmer had done ; and it is even possible that Cranmer 
himself, seeing that it was his principle to pursue his reforms 
by slow and almost imperceptible steps, might, had Edward's 
life been spared, have brought the English establishment 
still nearer to the model of the foreign Reformed churches. 
Be this, however, as it may, it is certain that no inconsiderable 
party of English Protestants was desirous of further changes ; 
and the establishment of new churches in foreign lands 
seemed to them to offer a favourable opportunity for carrying 
their views into effect. 

These feelings first manifested themselves among the 
English congregation settled at Erankfort. William Whit- 
tingham, afterwards Dean of Durham, was one of its members ; 
a man of violent and extreme opinions, as is manifest not 
only from his having written a preface to Goodman's " wild 
book" against the lawfulness of women's government, but 

* Strype, 1. c, p. 337, says, that Gualter's son, Rodolph, was supported at 
Oxford by Parkhurst, when Bishop of Norwich. But from an account-book of 
Whitgift's, when master of Trinity College, Cambridge, it appears that, though 
several sums were received from the Bishops of York and London (Aylmer and 
Sandys) for Rodolph's maintenance at that university, no mention is made of 
Parkhurst. — See Dr. Maitland, Essays on the Reformation, p. 44, note. 



422 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII. 



from the whole tenor of his conduct. Whittingham had 
been at Geneva, was acquainted with Calvin, and a great 
admirer of his discipline ; which he wished to introduce into 
the English church at Frankfort. It must be observed that 
Whittingham himself was, in all probability, the author of 
the only account which we possess of the dissensions to which 
this step gave rise, in a tract entitled " A brief Discourse of 
the Troubles begun at Frankfort in the year 1554/"* This 
tract was not printed till more than twenty years after the 
events it records (viz., in 1575), when it was published to 
serve a party purpose ; and again, with the same design, in 
1642.f It should, therefore, be received as the production 
of a warm partisan ; and is, too, written in so obscure and 
unmethodical a style, as frequently to make it difficult to 
follow the narrative. Inasmuch, however, as it contains 
several letters from the parties concerned in these disputes, 
it is a valuable record. 

It appears from the statement of Whittingham, that he and 
his company arrived at Frankfort in June, 1554. Early in 
July, by the advice of Morellio, a minister, and Castalio, an 
elder, of the French church, established in that city, applica- 
tion was made by the English to the council of Frankfort, 
through John Glauburg, one of its most distinguished 
members, for liberty to have a place, or church, in which 
they might perform divine service in their own tongue. On 
the 14th of July this request was granted by the council, and 
the English were permitted to use the church occupied by 
the French congregation, upon alternate days, and on 
Sundays, at such hours as might be agreed upon. Whit- 
tingham asserts, however, that this liberty was granted on 
condition that, in order to avoid offence, the English should 
not dissent from the French, or Calvinistic, congregation, in 

* See Professor M'Crie's reasons for this, in the preface to a recent reprint 
of the tract. Also the Edinburgh Review for April, 1847, No. lxxxv. 

f See Strype, Annals, ii., Part i., p. 482. 



CHAP. XII.] 



"TROUBLES OF FRANKFORT. 



423 



doctrine or ceremonies, and that they should approve and 
subscribe their confession of faith. But this part of his 
narrative is not very clear ; for, in the same page, he repre- 
sents the English as consulting among themselves " what 
order of service they should use : " adding, " for they were 
not so strictly bound, as was told them, by the magistrates, 
but if the one allowed of the other it was sufficient/'' * At 
length it was determined to adopt the English liturgy; only 
by general consent it was agreed that the congregation should 
not respond aloud ; that the litany should be omitted ; and 
that the surplice, and many other things in the church service, 
as well as in the ministration of the sacraments, which would 
seem strange in a Reformed church, should be laid aside. 

Such was the motive assigned ; but the true one discovers 
itself immediately afterwards. " Then was it thought good 
among themselves," says our author, " that forthwith they 
should advertise their countrymen and brethren dispersed of 
this singular benefit, the like whereof could no where else as 
yet be obtained, and to persuade them (all worldly respects 
put apart) to repair thither, that they might altogether, with 
one mouth and one heart, both lament their former wicked- 
ness, and also be thankful to their merciful Father that he 
had given them such a church in a strange land, wherein 
they might hear God's word truly preached, the sacraments 
rightly ministered, and discipline used, which in their own 
country could never be obtained." t With this view the 
Frankfort congregation wrote a circular letter, on the 2nd of 
August, to the English settled at Strasburgh, Zurich, Wesel, 
Emden, and other places, inviting them to come to Frankfort 
and participate in the blessings which they had themselves 
procured. 

That this letter was a proselyting one is evident. Not 
content with having obtained a mode of worship suited to 
their own notions, Whittingham and his companions wished 

* A Brief Discourse, &c, p. 6, (Reprint, 1846). f Ibid., p. 7. 



424 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. XII. 



to make this an opportunity for bringing over the remainder 
of the English exiles to Calvinistic tenets. This is sufficiently 
manifest from the following passage in the circular : " You 
remember that before we have reasoned together in hope to 
obtain a church, and shall we now draw back as unmindful 
of God's providence, which hath procured us one free from 
all dregs of superstitious ceremonies ? 33 * And again, from 
another sentence aimed against episcopacy : " As touching 
the point of preferment, we are persuaded thoroughly that it 
hath this meaning, that every man thought of himself 
modestly, humbly submitting himself to all men, unabling 
no man ; for so much as you know that he which seeketh 
ambition, glory, advantage, or such like, is not moved with 
God's spirit, as witness the instructions that Christ our 
master gave to his disciples, who, labouring of like disease, 
were admonished that he which did excel among them should 
abase himself to his inferior: which malady St. Paul per- 
ceiving to infect like a canker, most diligently frameth his 
style, that he might not seem to prefer himself to others in 
the course of his ministry." f The real object, therefore, 
though somewhat disguised, was to innovate in the worship 
and discipline established in the English Protestant Church ; 
for at all events the authority of the magistrates is not 
pleaded as hostile to that form in the other towns where 
English congregations were settled. 

The majority of the refugees were, however, very well 
contented with King Edward's service-book, as appears from 
their answers to the Frankfort circular. Those at Strasburgh 
mistook, or pretended to mistake, the drift of Whittingham 
and his associates, and construed their letter as a request for 
one or two clergymen to come and take the government of 
the Frankfort congregation, instead of as a general invitation 
for all the exiles to settle there. The congregation at Zurich 
suspected that some other motives were concealed behind 



* A Brief Discourse, &c, p. 9, (Reprint, 1846). 



+ Ibid.,?. 10. 



chap, xii.] " TROUBLES OF FRANKFORT." 



425 



those put forth in the circular, and therefore in their answer 
observed : " If upon the receipt hereof ye shall without cloak 
or forged pretence, but only to seek Christ, advertise us by 
your letter that our being there is so needful as ye have 
already signified, and that we may altogether serve and praise 
God as freely and as uprightly (whereof private letters 
received lately from Frankfort make us much to doubt,) as 
the order last taken in the church of England permitteth and 
prescribeth (for we are fully determined to admit and use no 
other), then, about Easter next, for afore we cannot, God 
prospering us, and no just cause or occasion to the contrary 
growing in the meantime whereby our intent may be defeated, 
with one consent we agree to join ourselves unto you, and 
most willingly to do such service there, as our poor condition 
and calling doth permit." * 

In answer to a second invitation from Frankfort, those of 
Zurich sent a letter to the same effect as the former one, and 
in order to come to a better understanding on the matter, 
despatched Richard Chambers, one of their body, to confer 
with the congregation at Frankfort. But when Chambers 
found that they would not assure him the full use of the 
English book, he departed with a letter from Whittingham 
and his associates to that effect. Towards the end of 
November we again find Chambers at Frankfort ; but this 
time charged with a letter from the English exiles at 
Strasburgh, and accompanied by Edmund Grindal, afterwards 
Bishop of London. In this letter the Strasburgh congre- 
gation expressed their intention of coming to Frankfort in the 
following February, but at the same time of exercising their 
religion " according to that godly order set forth and received 
in England," not doubting the co-operation of those at 
Frankfort ' ' in reducing the English church now begun there 
to the former perfection of the last had in England, so far as 
possibly can be attained, lest by much altering of the same 



A Brief Discourse, &c, p. 16, (Reprint, 1846). 



426 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIST. 



[chap. XII. 



we should seem to condemn the chief authors thereof, who, as 
they now suffer, so are they most ready to confirm that fact 
with their bloods/' &c. Grindal, in an interview with the 
Frankfort congregation, also declared that the intention of 
their coming was chiefly to establish the English liturgy : 
" not that they meant (as he said) to have it so strictly 
observed but that such ceremonies and things which the 
country could not bear might well be omitted, so that they 
might have the substance and the effect thereof."* Here- 
upon John Knox (who had accepted an invitation to come to 
Frankfort from Geneva) and Whittingham asked Grindal 
and Chambers what they meant by " the substance of the 
book?" To which the latter replied that they had no 
commission to dispute ; and in turn inquired what parts of 
the book the Frankfort congregation would admit ? To 
which it was answered : " that what they could prove of that 
book to stand with God's word, and the country permit, that 
should be granted them." Grindal and Chambers returned 
to Strasburgh with a letter to this effect. 

As in a subsequent letter those at Strasburgh declined to 
fix any certain time at which they would come to Frankfort, 
the congregation of the latter place determined to establish 
some certain order of service, and also to celebrate the 
communion: and at last it was decided that the order of 
Geneva should be adopted as "most godly and farthest off from 
superstition."t But Knox being applied to, refused either 
to use that order, or to administer the communion, " till the 
learned men of Strasburgh, Zurich, Emden, &c, were made 
privy." Nor would he administer the communion according 
to the English service book : alleging that " there were 
things in it placed only by warrant of man's authority, and 
no ground in God's word for the same, and had also a long 
time very superstitiously in the mass been wickedly abused." 
But Knox offered to preach. 



* A Brief Discourse, &c, p. 23, (Reprint^ 1846). 



f Ibid., p. 27. 



chap. xii. J "TKOUBLES OF FRANKFORT." 427 

In the meantime Thomas Lever had arrived from Zurich, 
whom the congregation of Frankfort had elected for one of 
their ministers, together with Knox and Haddon. But 
when the Frankfort congregation found that he would not 
use the order of Geneva, but wanted to set up one of his 
own, they would not permit it. And fearing the further 
progress of this matter, Whittingham and Knox determined 
to arrest it by an appeal to Geneva ; for which purpose they 
drew up a description of the English service in Latin, and 
sent it to Calvin, requesting his judgment on it. In the 
letter to Calvin accompanying this document they declared 
" that some of their countrymen went about to force them 
to the same, and would admit no other, saying that it was an 
order most absolute, and that if ever they came into their 
country they would do their best to establish it again an 
affirmation hardly decent or candid when we consider that 
the Frankfort congregation had been the first to endeavour 
to force their own views on the other churches. 

Calvin replied to this application in a letter dated on the 
18th of January, 1555. f In this he laments the division 
which had arisen among the English exiles in the time of 
their adversity, as very unseasonable. He says that he does 
not blame the constancy of those who are drawn into a 
dispute against their wills in defence of a just cause; but 
that he deservedly condemns that pertinacity which delays 
and hinders the holy desire of forming a church. J But 
though in things indifferent, as outward rites, he (Calvin) 
was inclined to be easy and compliant, yet he did not think 

* A Brief Discourse, Sec, p. 28, (Reprint, 1846). 

*t* Ep. 200. It is translated in the Brief Discourse, p. 34, et seq. ; but 
some of the expressions are twisted to a meaning more favourable to the 
Frankfort congregation than the original warrants. 

$ By translating "formandce ecclesice studium" by " the holye carefulnes of 
reforming the church," the author of the tract converts this observation, which 
Calvin seems to have levelled merely against the pertinacity of the Frankfort 
congregation, which prevented them from forming a church, into a decided 
approbation of the views of Whittingham and his party. 



428 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII. 



it expedient to yield on all occasions to the silly moroseness 
of those who will not depart from their ancient customs. In 
the English liturgy, such as it had been described to him, 
he perceived that there were many bearable absurdities : by 
which words he meant, that though there was not the purity 
that might be wished, yet that faults which could not be imme- 
diately corrected, were to be borne for a time, so long as they 
did not involve any open impiety. He thought that honest, 
grave, and learned ministers of Christ should so start from 
these beginnings as to proceed further and seek something 
purer, and more filed from rust. That if true religion had 
still flourished in England, something should have been 
corrected, and much laid aside. That now, when these 
beginnings were overthrown, when a church was to be 
established in another place, and when, therefore, it was 
free to choose anew that form which seemed best adapted to 
use and edification ; he could not understand what those 
meaned who were so much delighted with the leaviugs of 
Popish dregs. They loved, forsooth, what they were accus- 
tomed to. But this was trifling and puerile ; besides, founding 
a new institution differed much from changing one. Though 
he would not have them immoderately stiff, if the infirmity 
of some would not permit them to proceed higher; yet he 
desired others to be admonished not to be too self-satisfied 
in their ignorance, nor to retard the holy work by their 
pertinacity, nor to be too much carried away by a foolish 
rivalry. For what cause of quarrel had they, except their 
shame of yielding to those who were better than themselves ? 
But he remarked, that he perhaps in vain addressed those who 
did not recognise his authority to give them advice. They 
were much deceived, he continued, if they feared any sinister 
reports in England as to their renouncing that religion for 
which they had quitted their country. Bother, a sincere 
and ingenuous profession would compel the faithful left 
there to weigh well into how deep an abyss they were fallen ; 



CHAP, xir.] 



"TROUBLES OF FRANKFORT. 



429 



and that their downfal would wound them the more deeply 
when they perceived those abroad proceeding beyond that 
middle course, from which they themselves had been forced 
even to retrograde. 

This letter was on the whole, as might indeed have been 
expected, favourable to the party of Whittingham and Knox, 
though Calvin does not bestow unqualified approbation on 
their conduct. It brought over to that party, however, several 
of those at Frankfort who were previously hesitating; and, 
after much debate, it was decided that Knox, Whittingham, 
Gilby, Fox, and Cole, should draw up a service-book ; which 
they did after the fashion of that of Geneva. This book, 
however, did not give entire satisfaction, and Knox, 
Whittingham, Lever, and Parry were charged to alter and 
modify it ; which they did by adopting, among other changes, 
some parts of the English service-book. This new order was 
to be used till the end of the following April, and any 
disputes that might arise respecting it were to be referred 
to Calvin, Musculus, Martyr, Bullinger, and Viret. 

Such was the posture of affairs when Dr. Richard Cox, 
accompanied by some other persons, arrived at Frankfort 
from England on the 13th of March. That eminent divine, 
who subsequently became Bishop of Ely, had been King 
Edward's tutor, and one of Cranmer's chief coadjutors in 
preparing the liturgy published in that prince's reign : and, 
when he arrived at Frankfort, took immediate steps to 
restore its use among the congregation settled there. The 
author of the " Brief Discourse " * charges Dr. Cox and his 
companions with violent conduct in effecting this object; 
with interrupting the order of the service by making their 
responses aloud, and with thrusting themselves by force into 
the pulpit and reading the litany. If such proceedings were 
really resorted to they can hardly be justified. But, 

" Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes % " 



Page 38. 



430 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII 



Accusations like these come with a bad grace from men 
like Whittingham and Knox, who were not slow in 
retaliating. On the very same day that these disturbances 
are said'to have occurred, Knox delivered a violent sermon, 
in which he reflected upon some of the opposite party as 
pluralists.* All was now tumult and confusion. Upon an 
appeal to the Councillor Glauburg, Whittingham's party 
seem to have been once more triumphant; but shortly 
afterwards Dr. Cox and his followers discomfited them by 
procuring Knox's banishment from Frankfort. This they 
did by denouncing him to the magistrates of that city as the 
author of the book entitled " An Admonition to England ;" f 
in which he had dissuaded the marriage of Queen Mary with 
the emperor's son, Philip, and compared Charles V. himself 
to Nero, for his cruelties towards the Protestants. All this 
was effected in a very short time ; for Knox left Frankfort 
on the 26th of March. On the same day the magistrates of 
Frankfort intimated to Whittingham their resolution that 
King Edward's liturgy should be used in the English church, 
and forbade him to meddle to the contrary. J 

Dr. Cox and his party deemed it expedient to acquaint 
Calvin with what had been done, which they did in a letter 
dated on the 5th of April, 1555, couched in terms of the 
greatest deference and respect. § From this we learn, that, 
though they had been permitted by the magistrates to retain 
King Edward's liturgy, they, nevertheless, freely made many 
important concessions in favour of the more scrupulous 
portion of their brethren, by giving up " private baptisms, 
confirmation of children, saints' days, kneeling at the holy 

* A Brief Discourse, &c, p. 39. M'Crie, Life of Knox, p. 91. 

+ In the Brief Discourse it is erroneously 'termed " An Admonition to 
Christians." The full title of the book is, "An Admonition of Christians 
concerning the present Troubles of England." % A Brief Discourse, &c, p. 45. 

§ A translation will be found in the Original Letters, second portion, p. 753 
(Parker Society). Among the subscribers, besides Cox and others, were 
Becon, Sandys, Grindal, and Bale. Whittingham had previously acquainted 
Calvin with Knox's banishment, in a letter dated March 25th (Ibid., p. 764). 



chap, xii.] "TROUBLES OF FRANKFORT. 



431 



communion, the linen surplices of the ministers, crosses, and 
other things of the like character." And these things they 
laid aside, not as impure and papistical, hut as heing in 
themselves indifferent ; on which account they did not wish 
to retain them to the offence of their brethren. 

Calvin answered this letter on the 12th of June.* He 
expressed his joy that matters had been brought to an 
amicable termination ; but he would not allow that the things 
which had been abandoned were indifferent, and stigmatised 
them as popish dregs. He gave his opinion that Knox had 
not been piously nor fraternally dealt with; yet he would 
not renew the remembrance of these evils, but exhorted them 
to make amends to those who had been wounded by their 
conduct. And as he had advised those who were discon- 
tented to depart, several of Whittingham's party determined 
on that course ; but before they went, addressed a letter to 
the congregation on the 27th of August, in which they de- 
manded arbiters to settle the points in dispute, and denied 
that their departure could with propriety be termed a schism. 
But arbiters were peremptorily refused, and a warm debate 
ensued. Before the end of September, "the oppressed 
church " departed from Frankfort : Fox, with a few others, 
repairing to Basle, whilst Whittingham and the greater part 
of the remainder went to Geneva, f Here they were cour- 
teously received by the magistrates, ministers, and people, 
and immediately chose Knox and Goodman for their pastors. J 
Such was the beginning of dissent, or " separation/ 5 in the 
English church. 

On the 20th of September, Dr. Cox and his friends wrote 
a long letter in reply to that of Calvin just alluded to, which, 
they complain, had tended to encourage their opponents. 

* Ep. 206. It is translated in the Brief Discourse, p. 51, et seq., but wrongly 
dated on the last of May. In the Lausanne edition it is wrongly addressed 
" Cnoxo et gregalibus," for " Coxo" &c. 

+ See Whittingham 's letter to Calvin, Original Letters (Parker Society), 
p. 766. J A Brief Discourse, Sec, p. 59. 



432 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYUST. 



[CHAP. 511. 



They make a spirited remonstrance against Calvin's charge 
of being " unreasonably addicted to their country," which 
they speak of with a truly English feeling of patriotism. 
They observe that he said he could easily refute the reasons 
which they had alleged for not departing from the received 
form of worship; which they were not surprised at, as he 
had not heard these reasons stated by themselves, but from 
the mouths of their adversaries. They characterise the 
information he had received, that they had made no conces- 
sions, as " a barefaced and impudent falsehood ; " and it is, 
indeed, refuted by a letter of Cole, one of Whittingham's 
adherents, in which we find it stated, " that without further 
reasoning they (that is, the Church party) permit me to my 
conscience as touching their ceremonies." * They affirm 
that Calvin had also been deceived, by being informed that 
they used ' ' lights and crosses ; " for that they never had 
any. They remark that he " was entirely ignorant of 
almost all the circumstances of their case;" and that he 
f* was right in restraining himself, or he would otherwise, as 
the mountebanks do, fight to no purpose against things 
which have no existence." They reprove him for lending 
his ears to their adversaries respecting the mode in which 
they had elected their ministers ; his observations on which 
point were " a thunderbolt," but unfortunately missed their 
object. They repel his insinuation that they had abused 
the leniency of the Frankfort council ; by which he at once 
assumed that they were lost to shame, and that the magis- 
trates were stupid, and unworthy of their office. They next 
proceed to explain the affair of Knox's banishment ; and in 
this part it must be allowed that Dr. Cox and his friends 
seem rather too tender of Queen Mary's reputation. But 
they affirm that their motive for denouncing Knox was the 
danger which threatened the whole church of Frankfort, if 
they permitted him to remain among them after what he 

* A Brief Discourse, &c, p. 60. 



chap, xii.] "TROUBLES OF FRANKFORT." 433 

had written against Philip and his queen ; and that they had 
first of all privately recommended him to withdraw. They 
describe his book as having " added much oil to the flame of 
persecution in England ; " and state that, before it came out, 
not one of their brethren had suffered death. And they 
conclude their letter as follows : " You say that you have 
( diligently admonished those who are minded to leave us,' 
that their departure should not rend asunder the agreement 
of the brethren/ We wish that your wisdom had foreseen 
this, and that the authority of your letter had not given 
encouragement to the former quarrel before you had heard 
the other side of the question. We wish that your sagacity 
had anticipated what was the tendency of their designs, 
namely, to open faction, to say nothing more. For they 
themselves now presume to write that they are ready to 
maintain the lawfulness of their secession from our church. 
We certainly hoped, when we wrote to you, that our 
reconciliation would have been lasting; and your friend 
Whittingham, with all the rest of his party, except three or 
four, had given in his adhesion to our church. But oh ! like 
true Proteuses, they now make subterfuges, and shamefully 
desert us, under I know not what pretence. We know not 
whence this change of sentiment has arisen; but we leave 
you to judge what opinion must be entertained of those 
persons who tell you that they leave the church solely on 
account of ceremonies which even they themselves dare no 
longer affirm to be ungodly, nor can prove to be at variance 
with the word of God, or in any way unprofitable. We 
pray God to bestow upon them a better mind ; and we 
earnestly entreat you no longer to mix yourself up in so 
hatexul a business, lest some disparagement should arise to 
your reputation, which we desire should at all times be most 
honourable and holy." * It is impossible not to be struck 
with the altered tone of this letter when compared with the 

* See Original Letters (Parker Society), p. 755, et seq. 

F F 



434 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN". 



[chap. xii. 



preceding one ; and it was, probably, from this time that 
many members of the Anglican Church, seeing that Calvin 
had condemned them unheard, and sided with their opponents 
on an ex parte statement, began to feel less respect than 
formerly for his character. 

How displeasing these attempts of Whittingham and his 
associates were to those who had assisted in bringing the 
Reformation in England to its completion under King 
Edward, appears from a letter addressed to Grindal by 
Bishop Ridley, a little before his martyrdom. In this he 
says : " Alas ! that our brother Knox could not bear with 
our Book of Common Prayer; matters against which, 
although I grant a man, as he is, of wit and learning, may 
find to make apparent reasons ; but I suppose he cannot be 
able soundly to disprove, by God's word, the reason he 
maketh against the litany ; and the faults per sanguinem et 
sudorem he findeth in the same, I do marvel how he can or 
dare avouch them before the Englishmen that be with you. 
As for private baptism, it is not prescribed in the Book but 
where solemn baptism for lack of time and danger of death 
cannot be had. What would he in that case should be 
done ? Peradventure, he will say, It is better, then, to let 
them die without baptism. For this his better, what word 
hath he in Scripture ? And if he have none, why will he 
not follow that that the sentence of the old ancient writers 
doth more allow ? From whom to dissent without warrant 
of God's word, I cannot think it any godly wisdom. And 
as for purification of women, I ween the word purification is 
changed, and it is called thanksgiving. Surely M. Knox 
is in my mind a man of much good learning, and of an 
earnest zeal. The Lord grant him to use them to his 
glory." * 

Whilst the church of the English refugees at Frankfort 
was thus torn with intestine dissensions, with which also 



* Strype, Life of Grindal, p. 28. 



CHAP. XII.] 



LUTHERAN PERSECUTIONS. 



435 



the French church established there was equally distracted, 
a common danger was impending over both. An imperial 
diet was held at Augsburg in 1555, at which, in the absence 
of Charles V., his brother Ferdinand, King of Hungary, 
presided. The object of this diet was to terminate the 
religious differences which distracted the empire ; and an 
edict for that purpose was published on the 25th of Sep- 
tember of that year. The only religious denominations, 
however, recognised by this diet, were the Roman Catholic 
and Lutheran; and by the second article of the edict, all 
who were not comprised under one or the other of these 
confessions were expressly excluded from the benefits of 
this religious peace. * This gave a new handle to the 
Lutherans to persecute the Calvinists and Sacramentaries. 
The refugees at Wesel became the objects of a bitter persecu- 
tion, and even went in danger of their lives from the fury of 
the Lutherans ; though Melancthon, whom the magistrates 
of Wesel consulted, recommended toleration; since Luther 
had required no more from the citizens of Augsburg and 
Strasburgh, than an acknowledgment of the substantial 
presence of Christ in the eucharist.f At Frankfort, through 
the moderation and good sense of the magistrates, the 
refugees were treated with more kindness and consideration ; 
though the bitter quarrels which they fell into among them- 
selves, respecting ceremonies and points of faith, rendered 
them hardly worthy of this leniency. These quarrels ran so 
high among the French congregation that they had almost 
come to blows in the church itself. { In order to appease 
these dissensions among his countrymen, Calvin wrote to 
the council of Frankfort, as well as to the burgomaster 
Glauburg, on the last day of February, 1556, § offering to go 
thither and confer amicably with their ministers. On this 
occasion, however, Calvin seems to have been actuated by 

* Ruchat, vi. 153, et seq. + Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 344. . 

$ Ibid., p. 160. § See Ep. 223. 

FF 2 



436 



LIFE OF JOHX CALYIN. 



[chap. XII. 



the desire of upholding his own doctrines, as well as by that 
of establishing peace. In the previous year he had dedicated 
his " Harmony of the first three Gospels " to the Frankfort 
council, who had received it very graciously, and acknow- 
ledged it by a letter of thanks, and a present of fifty gold 
florins. * Soon afterwards, however, Joachim Westphal got 
his book against Calvin published at Frankfort ; and, in a 
letter to the pastors of that city, dated on the 2nd of March, 
1556, f Calvin says : "I had persuaded myself that we were 
thoroughly agreed (viz. on the subject of the sacraments), or 
that, if our doctrine was not precisely the same, there was, at 
all events, no such discrepancy as would occasion an odious 
dispute. It may be that the book I allude to (Westphars) 
was published without your knowledge, and I certainly do not 
think that you gave it your approval. I do not mention this 
for the sake of expostulation ; but, since at the same time 
a rumour has reached me that some of your college do not 
quite agree with me on the subject of the sacraments, I have 
thought it best to be beforehand, lest my silence or dissimu- 
lation should occasion strife." He then repeats his offer of 
going to Frankfort, adding : " I am not so uneasy on my 
own account, as that you may not receive with sincere 
affection the foreign brethren to whom the Lord hath given 
a resting-place in your city ; and who, I hear, are fearful of 
their tranquillity being disturbed by I know not what 
quarrels and vexations." 

The Frankfort ministers returned a gentle answer, though 
they did not dissemble that they were not agreed with him 
as to the sacraments ; but they promised that the churches 
should not be molested. Nevertheless they attacked, a little 
afterwards, the French refugees on the subject of baptism, 
and even inveighed against Calvin himself, saying : That 
after his example the French wished to impose laws 
upon others, and that he exercised a tyrannical authority at 



* P. Henry, iii. 415. 



f Ep. 224. 



chap, xii.] CALVIN VISITS FRANKFOKT. 



437 



Geneva.* Calvin resented this accusation in a letter to 
Glauburg, calling it a detestable calumny, as his brother 
ministers would bear witness, who had never complained 
that he made his power too much felt ; but, on the contrary, 
often reproached him with being too timid, and with not using 
freely enough that authority which they all allowed him.f 

From the letter just referred to, Glauburg would seem 
to have dissuaded Calvin from coming to Frankfort ; never- 
theless he went thither towards the end of August. A 
little before his departure, he had been seized, whilst preach- 
ing, with a tertian ague, of so violent a description that 
he was forced to leave the pulpit. A report had even been 
spread that he was dead : intelligence which was received with 
such joy by the Papists at Noyon, that the canons celebrated 
a solemn thanksgiving. J From this attack, however, though 
he was not in the habit of travelling much, he seems only to 
have gathered new strength for his journey. In order to spare 
Farel's age, whose zeal would have prompted him to accompany 
Calvin, the latter would not even take leave of him.§ 

John A' Lasco, at the instance of Sigismund Augustus, 
King of Poland, had endeavoured, in the spring of the 
year, to effect an accommodation between the Lutheran and 
Reformed churches ; but this attempt was frustrated by 
Brenz, who required that the Calvinists should sign the 
Confession of Augsburg, and recognise the doctrine of 
Christ's ubiquity, which A 3 Lasco pronounced absurd ;|| and 
thus the breach had only been widened. Calvin, on his 
arrival, found that animosity ran very high, and soon per- 
ceived that mediation would be useless. " Satan has so 
fascinated the parties," he says, in a letter of Sept. 17th, 
" that there is not the slightest hope of concord." % Glauburg 
was desirous of arranging matters, but his efforts were frus- 
trated through the violence of Valerandus Pollan, one of the 

* Ruchat, vi. 162. + Ep. 229, June 24th, 1556. 

X Beza, Vita Cafe., anno 1556. § Kirchhofer, ii. 149. 

|| P. Henry, iii. 418. 11 MS. Bern., apud P. Henry, Ibid. 



438 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XII. 



French ministers, whom Calvin, in one of his letters, calls 
"a devil." 

Calvin was so besieged the short time that he remained 
at Frankfort that he could scarcely find a leisure hour. 
A certain Justus Welsius occupied his time for two whole 
days in discussing the question of free will ! Calvin preached 
and baptised in the church of the White Ladies, which had 
been conceded to the refugees ; but he visited none of the 
Lutheran ministers. He returned to Geneva before the 12th 
of October, as it appears from the Registers that he thanked 
the council, on that day, for the herald whom they had 
ordered to escort him to Frankfort.* This last circumstance 
shows plainly in what high honour Calvin was held by the 
Genevese. 

Yet, notwithstanding these disputes, the magistrates still 
permitted the French and English refugees to have their 
church at Frankfort ; though they made them subscribe the 
Confession of Augsburg. The refugees seem to have been 
compelled to this step through the rashness of Valerandus 
Pollan ; but they entered a reservation concerning the 
meaning of the word substantially, as applied to the 
eucharist.f But, though thus delivered from the persecution 
of the Lutherans, dissension still continued to prevail in the 
English church ; in which, however, Calvin does not seem to 
have interfered any further. On the accession of Elizabeth 
most of the English exiles returned to their own country. 
Before their departure, Whittingham and the chief of his 
party, who were now settled at Geneva, again addressed a 
circular to the different congregations under pretence of a 
reconciliation; the real object of which, however, evidently 
was that their own notions respecting ceremonies, and other 
disputed points, might be carried out in the church which 
was now about to be re-established in England .% Thus, with 

* Registres, apud P. Henry, iii. 417. 
f Calvin to Bullinger, August, 1557, MS. Tig., apud P. Henry, iii. 420. 
J See his letter in the Brief Discourse, p. 186, et seq., in which we find 



chap, xii.] RETURN OF THE MARIAN EXILES, 



439 



characteristic obstinacy, the same minority of the exiled 
church which had been the occasion of these "troubles at 
Frankfort," persisted to the very last in endeavouring to thrust 
their views upon their brethren. Several of those at Geneva, 
and among them Knox and Whittingham, remained, however, 
at that place, in order to finish a translation of the Bible 
which they had begun. Whittingham and his companions 
took a formal leave of Geneva on the 30th of May, 1560, as 
appears from the following entry in the Registers, under that 
date : " William Whittingham, citizen, in his own name and 
that of his company, came to thank the magistrates for the 
kind treatment they have received in this city, and to state 
that they are required to return to their own country, in 
order to minister to the church there ; but that they entreated 
their worships to regard them as humble servants of the 
republic, and promised that in every thing and every place, 
wherever they might have the means of doing service either 
to the state or to any inhabitants of this city, they would 
exert themselves to the utmost of their power. They 
requested, too, a certificate of their life and conversation 
during their residence in this city, and gave in a register of 
those of their countrymen who came to dwell therein, by way 
of a perpetual remembrance. It was decreed that they 
should have honourable license to depart, together with 
a testimonial of the satisfaction we have had in them ; and 
that they be exhorted to pray for us, and to act in their turn 
towards foreigners as we have done to them ; that they be 
always disposed to look with affection upon this city, and 
that those who are now citizens or subjects be still regarded 
as such for the time to come."* 

the following sentence : " For what can the Papist wish more than that we 
should dissent one from another, and, instead of preaching Jesus Christ and 
profitable doctrine, to contend one against another, either for superfluous 
ceremonies, or other like trifles, from the which God of his mercy hath delivered us \ " 
* Original Letters (Parker Society), p. 765. 



440 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Revival of the predestinarian controversy — Calvin's treatment of Castellio — 
Italian Antitrinitarians— Gribaldo — Biandrata — Alciati — Gentile — Schools 
founded at Geneva — Dissensions in the Pays de Vaud — Viret and others 
banished — Farel's intemperate zeal — Viret, Beza, and others, repair to 
Geneva — Farel's marriage — Calvin v s illness — His intercourse with England 
— Correspondence with Knox. 

During this period Castellio was suspected of an attempt 
to renew the predestinarian controversy, by getting a treatise 
on the subject printed secretly at Paris. * In a letter written 
in February, 1555, in which Calvin defends himself from the 
attacks of a certain M. de la Vau, at Basle, he mentions that 
whole quires of CastelhVs books, attacking his doctrine of 
predestination, had been condemned, and Castellio himself, 
whom he styles a " fantastic person," forbidden to publish 
them, under pain of being beheaded.f Hence, apparently, 
the reason why Castellio, if he was really the author of 
the treatise just mentioned — a charge which he constantly 
denied — had recourse to Paris to get it printed. The book 
was written in an insidious form, the author pretending to 

* The title of this book was : " Traite du vieil et du nouvel Homme, Conseil 
a la France dtsotte, Recueil Latin de certains Articles et Arguments extraits des 
Livres de M. I. Calvin'''' (P. Henry, iii. 89, note). 

f " II allegue pour ses complices ung fantastique nomme Sebastian Castellio, 
auquel il en conjoinct deux aultres, qu'il diet estre lecteurs publiques a Basle. 
S'il pretend donner credit a ses challans soubs umbre de la Ville, quelle 
mocquerie est ce de ne tenir compte de tous les ministres et pasteurs, et 
pareillement des docteurs en Theologie lesquels il congnoist estre divincts avec 
nous ? Mais cependant il ne diet mot, qu'en la ville de Basle, des cayers des 
livres de son Castellio, ou il vouloit impugner nostre doctrine touchant la 
predestination, ont este' condamnes, avec defense de les publier, sur peine de la 
teste." — See the letter in P. Henry, ii., Beil. 12. 



chap, xiii.] PREDESTINARIAN CONTROVERSY REVIVED. 441 



apply to Calvin for some explanations of his doctrine, in 
order that he might be able to defend it against the objec- 
tions of opponents. * Towards the conclusion, the author 
contrasted his own notions of the Supreme Being with those 
of Calvin. He described what he called Calvin's false God 
as slow to mercy, but quick to wrath; as having created 
a great portion of mankind merely for destruction ; as not 
only having predestinated numbers to perdition themselves, 
but to be the cause of the reprobation of others ; as having 
appointed and willed, from all eternity, that they should sin 
of necessity, so that neither theft, nor adultery, nor murder, 
are committed but by His will and impulse : as having filled 
the heart of man with evil thoughts, not only permitting, but 
actually inspiring, them ; so that, when men live unrighte- 
ously, it is the act of God rather than their own, seeing that 
they cannot act otherwise ; as having made Satan a liar ; so 
that it is not so much Satan himself as Calvin's God who is 
the author of lies, whilst he often speaks quite differently 
from what he thinks. But the God whom nature, reason, 
and Scripture reveal to us, is quite opposite to this. He is 
inclined to mercy, and slow to anger ; he created man after 
his own image, placed him in Paradise, and bestowed upon 
him eternal life. This God, who desires the happiness of all 
mankind, and that none be lost, whose righteousness over- 
flows against the power of sin, the light of whose justice 
shines upon all men, calls to us, " Come to me, ye that are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He inspires men 
with good and holy thoughts, frees them from the necessity 
of sinning into which their disobedience has cast them, and 
heals their troubles, so as never to refuse a blessing to those 
who ask for it. Now this God is come to destroy the works 

* See the preface, at the head of Calvin's answer {Opera, viii. 632, A.), 
where the tract is given with Calvin's answers seriatim. It consisted of pro- 
positions relating to predestination, selected from Calvin's work, with objections 
to them subjoined. 



442 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



of the Calvinistic God, and to cast him out. Gods of such 
different natures produce sons that are totally dissimilar. 
On the one part these are pitiless, proud, wrathful, envious, 
blood-thirsty, calumnious, hypocritical, having one thing in 
their heart and another on their tongue, intolerant, full of 
malice, seditious, quarrelsome, ambitious, covetous, loving 
luxury more than God, in a word, full of all the low and 
wicked affections with which their father inspires them : the 
other God, on the contrary, produces sons who are merciful, 
modest, gentle, benevolent, charitable, open, hating the 
shedding of blood, who speak out of the fulness of their 
hearts, patient, good-tempered, peace-makers, hating strife 
and quarrels, honourable, liberal, loving God more than the 
world; in short, abounding with all the good dispositions 
with which their author fills them. 

" The objectors to your doctrine," continued the author, 
" say that you, Calvin, and your disciples, bear the fruits of 
your God, and that most of you are quarrelsome, revengeful, 
unforgiving, and filled with the other vices which your 
God excites. When one answers that this is not the fault of 
the doctrine, which is good, and produces not such men; 
they reply, that it must have that effect, since it is plain that 
many, after adopting the doctrine, immediately become 
wicked, though not so bad before ; whilst, on the other hand, 
through Christ's teaching, men become better. Moreover, 
though you affirm yours to be the true doctrine, they say 
that they cannot believe you. For since your God very 
often says one thing, and thinks and wills another, it is to be 
feared that you may imitate him, and deceive men in like 
manner. I myself," continues the writer, ' ( was once taken 
with your doctrine ; and though I did not quite understand 
it, I defended it, because I so much esteemed your authority, 
that it seemed to me forbidden even to think differently from 
you. But now, when I hear the objections of your adver- 
saries, I know not what to reply." And he concluded by 



chap. xiii. J PREDESTINARIAN CONTROVERSY REVIVED. 443 



requesting Calvin, if lie had any good arguments, to let him 
know them.* 

This book was answered by Calvin in 1557, and afterwards 
by Beza.f Both replies are distinguished by their bitterness. 
Beza entered into the argument more in detail than Calvin ; 
who was himself dissatisfied with his performance, and 
whose chief aim in it was to free himself from the reproach 
of being a blasphemer. J Calvin, in a letter on the subject 
to an anonymous correspondent, justifies the anger he had 
displayed in a manner which shows how deeply he had been 
wounded. " If I seem to you too severe," he says, " believe 
me that it is the result of necessity. Meanwhile you do not 
consider how much your own facility hurts the church, which 
is such that the wicked may do anything with impunity, 
and which, confounding virtue and vice, makes no distinction 
between black and white. Whilst that excellent man of 
yours tries to undermine the chief point of our salvation, 
he blushes not to utter the most detestable blasphemies, 
affirming that Calvin's God is a liar, a hypocrite, false- 
hearted, the author of all wickedness, the enemy of all that 
is right and proper, and worse than Satan himself. But why 
should I complain that you treat me unkindly ? For I know 
that you mean nothing less than to approve of the foul and 
detestable barkings of that obscene dog. May the earth 
swallow me a thousand times rather than that I should not 
obey what the Spirit of God prescribes and dictates to me by 
the mouth of his prophets; that the opprobrium, namely, 
by which the majesty of God is wounded, should fall on my 

* See the tract, " De occulta Dei Providential Opera, viii. 645 ; also 
P. Henry, hi. Beil., 41, et seq., where an analysis of the book is given, with 
Beza's answers. 

f The title of Calvin's reply is : " Calurnnice Nebulonis cujusdam, quibus Odio 
gravare conatus est Doctrinam I. Calvini de occulta Dei Providentid, et I. Calvini 
ad easdem Responsio? Geneva, 1557. To this Calvin prefixed his former answer 
to Castellio's libel, by way of preface. Beza's answer (Tk. Bezos Vezelii Responsio 
ad Sycopliontarum quorundam Calumnias, &c.) appeared the following year. , 
$ P. Henry, iii. 92. 



444 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



own head (Psalm lxix.). Yet you, whilst I am defending 
that cause which I cannot desert without being a perfidious 
traitor, charge me with quarrelling ! I wish so thoughtless 
a word, for which I blush as being unworthy of a Christian, 
had never escaped from you. Surely if there is one drop of 
piety in us, such an indignity should excite our highest 
indignation ; and, for my own part, I would in this case 
rather be furious than unmoved by anger." * 

Jealousy for God's honour is highly just and laudable ; but 
there are passages in Calvin's work which betray rather the 
rancorous virulence of personal animosity than the holy 
warmth of religious zeal. Amongst other things he brought 
a charge of theft against Castellio, without thinking it worth 
while to ascertain whether there was any foundation for it.f 
Castellio's answer to this imputation is exceedingly touching. 
He pleads guilty to the charge of poverty, rendered all the 
more bitter by having a family of eight children to bring 
up ; and states that being obliged to sit up of nights in order 
to complete his translation of the Scriptures, he had openly 
and in company with many others, repaired to the banks of 
a river that flows into the Rhine, in order to hook up some 
pieces of drift wood borne down by the stream, wherewith to 
make him a fire to warm his chamber. Such was the action 
which Calvin magnified into a theft ! In allusion to such 
charges, Castellio, in the Defence which he published in 
answer to Calvin and Beza's books, reproaches them with 
snatching at all sorts of reports against their enemies, and 
putting them into the first work they published ; a practice 
which they would not fail to repent of at last. He attributes 

* Ep. 393. 

^ e< I demand of you when a year or two ago you had a hook in your hand 
for carrying off some wood to warm your house, whether it was not your own 
will that drove you to the theft ? If this alone suffices to your just damnation, 
that you knowingly and willingly sought a base and wicked gain by the loss of 
others, you are not at all absolved by exclaiming against necessity." — De occulta 
Dei Procidentia, Opera, viii. 644, B. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



CALVIN AND CASTELLIO. 



445 



Beza's ill-will towards him, to his having censured a book 
published by that writer under the name of " Passavantius." 
Calvin had also been mean enough to say that he had kept 
Castellio in his house at Strasburgh; but from the latter' s 
answer it appears that he had lodged with him but for a 
week, when he gave up his apartment to the valet of a 
Madame de Verger, who had come with her son to lodge with 
Calvin ; and that he had afterwards paid him for his board 
Subsequently he had lived in Calvin's house gratuitously for 
a week, to attend upon the valet when he was sick. On the 
other hand he states that he had been serviceable to Calvin's 
family, when he was at Ttatisbon. The tone of Castellio's 
Defence forms a striking contrast to that of Calvin's book. 
Bayle remarks of the Appendix to it : u The sequel of this 
appendix contains some excellent admonitions ; and it must 
be acknowledged that Castellio, call him heretic as long as 
you will, gave better examples of moderation in his writings 
than the orthodox persons who attacked him/'* Indeed 
Calvin had poured out such foul and unchristian-like abuse, 
that Castellio tells us he had heard it doubted whether he 
could have written it. Among the choice epithets showered 
upon him were those of blasphemer, slanderer, foul-mouthed 
dog, full of ignorance, bestiality, and impudence, impostor, 
impure corrupter of Scripture, vagabond, scurvy knave, &c. 
After recounting all these vituperations, Castellio observes : 
" Nothing is so hidden that will not be discovered. Christ 
will not always hang between thieves : crucified truth will 
rise again at last. But you ! — ought you not again and 
again to ponder what account you will be able to render to 
God for the many reproaches you have heaped on one for whom 
Christ died ? Even were I as truly all these things as I really 
am not, yet it ill becomes so learned a man as yourself, the 
teacher of so many others, to degrade so excellent an intellect 
by so foul and sordid abuse." A noble reproof! and which 

* See his Dictionary, art. Castalion, rem. G., sub fin. 



446 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xiii. 



must have been infinitely more cutting than any attempt at 
the same fashion of retaliation. 

About the same time that this controversy with Castellio 
was going on, Geneva began to be troubled by Antitrinitarian 
doctrines, which had spread to a great extent among the 
Italians settled there. It has been already said that these 
exiles had been very busy in publishing libels and attacks 
upon Calvin after the affair of Servetus, of whom many of 
them were disciples. This tendency to Antitrinitarianism 
seemed in some degree natural to the speculative and subtle 
nature of the Italian mind, and appears to have been fostered 
among the small community settled at Geneva by their 
having a separate place of worship assigned to them, on 
account of their language. The first Italian congregation 
seems to have been formed there in 1542, and Bernardin 
Occhino was probably one of its three ministers. This 
church did not last long ; but when Galeazzo Caraccioli, 
Marquis of Vico, settled at Geneva in 1551, to enjoy the 
free use of the religion he had adopted, it was revived.* 

Of this congregation Matteo Gribaldo, a professor of 
jurisprudence at Padua, was a member; who had bought 
the estate of Farges, in Gex, not far from Geneva, but in the 
territory of Berne ; and who annually spent some portion of 
his time both at this villa and in Geneva. During the trial 
of Servetus, Gribaldo had openly expressed himself against 
the lawfulness of punishing men for errors in their religious 
sentiments, though at that time he concealed his real opinion 
respecting the doctrine of that heretic, except from his most 
intimate friends. 

Having incurred the suspicion of the ecclesiastical authori- 
ties of his own country, Gribaldo abandoned Padua for good in 
the spring of 1555, and repaired to Tubingen; where, through 
the interest of Vergerio, he had procured from the Duke of 
Wurtemberg a professorship of jurisprudence. f Previously, 



Trechsel, ii. 280. 



t Ruchat, vi. 198. 



chap, xin.] ITALIAN ANTITRIMTAKIANS. 



447 



however, to going thither, he paid a visit to Geneva ; and on 
this occasion Calvin notified to him that he would give him 
an audience before his brother ministers, and three elders ; or 
rather, in plain terms, he received a summons to appear before 
the consistory. Upon his entering, Calvin would not give 
him his hand ; whereupon, in spite of Calvin's polite expla- 
nations that he could not do so till he knew that they were 
agreed as to principles of faith, Gribaldo suddenly left the 
room. Calvin now summoned him before the council, to be 
examined as to his religion; before which body Gribaldo 
expressed his surprise that he, who was welcome even to 
kings and emperors, should meet with such a reception from 
Calvin. Hereupon the latter remarked, that he was accus- 
tomed to hear even the lowest and most abject of the 
populace, and that he had refused the mark of respect in 
question to a jurisconsult like Gribaldo, only because he had 
discovered his perfidious conduct; adding, that if he had 
ingenuously professed himself a follower of Servetus, he 
would have heard him : but now that his dissimulation had 
been detected, he would have nothing to do with him. 
Gribaldo could not be brought to give any decided expla- 
nation of his opinions. He let fall some words, however, 
from which Calvin inferred the extent of his error, upon 
which he was ordered to leave the city ; and all the argu- 
ments he could advance, says Calvin, against the injustice of 
such a step, were refuted.* 

Gribaldo now proceeded to Tubingen, and on his way 
visited Bullinger at Zurich, by whom his profession of faith 
was considered satisfactory. His lectures at Tubingen 
obtained him much applause, and he was often consulted 
on important affairs by Duke Christopher of Wurtemberg. 
Calvin's eye, however, was still upon him ; and, in a letter 
to his old tutor, Melchior Wolmar, he advised him to be 

* Ep. 238, and Calvin's letter to Zurkinden, MS. Bern., apud P. Henry, iii. 
Beil. 99. 



448 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



on his guard against Gribaldo. Beza also sent to Yergerio 
a proof of his principles, in his own handwriting ; and to 
Bullinger a confession of his, to compare with another which 
he had given to that minister. Other Swiss theologians, 
besides Bullinger, regarded Gribaldo in a more favourable 
light ; as Musculus, at Berne, who, in a letter to Zanchi, in 
April, 1556, describes him as "a man not only of first-rate 
legal attainments, but also excellently versed in the religion 
of Christ/' * 

But at length so many reports began to be spread 
respecting Gribaldo's heterodoxy, that Vergerio, who had 
recommended him to the Duke of Wurtemberg, began to be 
alarmed ; and, in order to relieve himself from what might 
become a dangerous position, denounced his former protege to 
the duke, as harbouring heretical opinions : whereupon Count 
George of Wurtemberg, a cousin of the duke's, wrote to 
Geneva for information respecting Gribaldo's conduct there, 
and was answered by Calvin in the letter already quoted. f 

Gribaldo visited Switzerland as usual this year ; but, on 
his return from his estate at Farges, was wounded at Berne 
by a man of Gex, with whom he had a lawsuit, and was in 
consequence laid up in that city for several weeks. On his 
return to Tubingen the duke ordered him to be examined in 
his presence by the senate of the university respecting the 
heretical tenets imputed to him. Gribaldo at first attempted 
to equivocate ; but, being pressed for a decided declaration 
whether he agreed with the Athanasian creed, and the 
edict of Theodosius respecting the Trinity and catholic 
faith, he asked for three weeks' time to consider of the 
matter. This interval, however, he made use of to escape to 
Farges, where his family commonly resided. At this place he 
was apprehended by the magistrates of Berne, at the instance 
of the Duke of Wurtemberg, in September, 1557. His papers 
were seized, which, besides Antitrinitarian heresies, contained 



Trechsel, ii. 287. 



f Ep. 238, May 2nd, 1557. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



GRIBALDO. 



449 



many erroneous notions concerning the person of Christ. 
The Bernese were at first inclined to send him back to 
Tubingen, with a command not to return to their territories 
without a certificate from the Duke of Wurtemberg. Fearful 
of the duke's anger, Gribaldo undertook to do whatever was 
required of him ; whereupon he was ordered to draw up 
with his own hand a confession, in which he renounced his 
errors respecting the Trinity, and acknowledged the truth of 
the Nicene and Athanasian creeds. He was, nevertheless, 
banished from the Bernese territories; but appealing for 
mercy, for the sake of his seven children, the sentence was 
revoked the following year.* 

Calvin regarded Gribaldo as the originator of those heresies 
which shortly afterwards manifested themselves in the Italian 
church at Geneva, f The next who made himself con- 
spicuous by them was George Biandrata, a native of Saluzzo. 
Biandrata had been brought up to the medical profession, 
and having gone to Poland became surgeon to the queen, 
and subsequently to Queen Isabella of Hungary. Afterwards 
he returned to Italy, and resided for some time at Pavia; 
but, becoming suspected by the inquisition, fled in 1557 to 
Geneva. J 

Biandrata was naturally acute, but his learning was of no 
great depth. m When first his tenets began to be unsettled by 
what he heard in the Italian congregation, he frequently 
consulted Calvin on the subject of his doubts, pretending to 
regard him as his preceptor : a disingenuous artifice often 
resorted to by the Unitarians of that period. He flattered 
Calvin by telling him that he could find satisfaction only in his 
writings, and that those of the German theologians distracted 
him. After consulting Calvin, he would pretend to go away 
satisfied with his answers ; but would return the next day and 
ask the same questions over again, some of which were very 

* Trechsel, ii. 294, et seq. 
t See his letter to P. Martyr, May 22nd, 1558, Ep. 262. J Trechsel, ii. 53. 

G G 



450 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xni. 



acute and puzzling. At length he suggested to Calvin that, 
for the sake of pacifying the consciences of many, he should 
reject all that had been written by others. This monstrous 
proposition opened Calvin's eyes to the insidious nature of 
Biandrata's flattery, and he refused to have anything more 
to do with him. Calvin describes his conduct in the following 
passage of a letter to Lismann : * " Admonish the pious 
brethren what a monster G. Biandrata is, and what monstrous 
doctrines he holds, that they may be on their guard against 
him before they find it out by experience. He used to 
flatter me most disgustingly, calling me his reverend father, 
and professing that he depended wholly on my authority : 
but I told him freely that I had always considered his 
countenance the index of a bad and disingenuous mind, and 
of a perverse disposition, from which nothing good could be 
hoped. He tried to circumvent me like a serpent, but God 
gave me strength to withstand his cunning." f 

Another of these Antitrinitarians was Gian Pao]o Alciati, 
a Piedmontese, who had served in the army of Milan. J In 
short, heretical sentiments of this description had spread to 
such an extent amongst the Italian congregation, that in 
May, 1558, the presbyters of that church requested Calvin's 
assistance in extirpating them. Accordingly, the whole con- 
gregation being assembled before Calvin and two members 
of the council, the former addressed them, exhorting every 
one to express without reserve whatever opinions he might 
entertain, and promising that no punishment should follow 
on so doing. Upon this occasion Biandrata and Alciati made 
an open confession, in which the latter went so far as to say 
that he thought the Calvinists worshipped three devils, worse 
than all the idols of popedom. § As a remedy for this evil, 
Calvin caused a confession of faith to be drawn up in Italian, 
in which Antitrinitarian tenets were renounced, and which 
all the Italian refugees were compelled to sign. 



See Ep. 322. + MS. Bern., apud P. Henry, iii. 280, note. 

t Trechsel, ii. 310. § Ep. 322. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



BIANDRATA — ALCIATI. 



451 



Biandrata retired to Berne, where his cause was espoused 
by Zurkinden, the town secretary; between whom and 
Calvin an angry correspondence afterwards ensued. In 1558, 
Calvin published his short tract, entitled, "An Answer to 
the Questions of G. Biandrata." 

The leaders of this party being thus exposed and removed, 
peace seemed for a while restored to the Italian congre- 
gation ; but unfortunately, its minister, Lattantio Ragnone, 
lacked the discretion necessary to preserve it, and denounced 
in a sermon some of those who had subscribed the before- 
mentioned confession as Arians, Servetians, Georgians (i. e., 
followers of David Joris, or George), or anything worse that 
he could think of. Stung by these reflections, one of the 
congregation, named Giovanne Valenti Gentile, had the 
boldness to declare himself openly. Gentile, a native of 
Coscenza, in Calabria, was a man of some acuteness and 
learning, and had formerly been a schoolmaster. He had 
been attracted to Geneva by Calvin's reputation, where he 
soon imbibed the tenets of Gribaldo and Biandrata. He 
seems, however, to have possessed more openness and candour 
than his teachers ; and, on the occasion alluded to, affirmed 
that he felt it to be his duty uot to conceal those opinions which 
God had revealed to him. As the presbytery seemed to have 
exhausted its means of coercion, the council of Geneva took 
up the affair, and Gentile was accused of perfidy in violating 
the confession he had subscribed ; a charge which he could 
not deny, but contented himself with pleading his conscience.* 
In a letter to the Marquis Caraccioli (19th of July, 1558), 
Calvin mentions that Gentile had been imprisoned ; that 
he had spread his doctrines in secret, which very nearly 
resembled those of Servetus, adding : "I do not know what 
will be the consequence, but the beginning causes me much 
vexation." f 

* Trechsel, ii. 317. The facts of Gentile's case are related in Calvin, Explicatio, 
&c, Opera, viii. 569, Amst. ed. f MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 284. 

G G 2 



452 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



f CHAP. XIII. 



From his dungeon Gentile addressed a letter, not to 
Calvin, whom he regarded as his personal enemy, but to 
three other ministers ; namely, Michael Cop, Raimond 
Chauvet, and Louis Enoch, imploring their mediation and 
good offices between himself and Calvin. But Gentile must 
have been ill-acquainted with the nature of Calvin's power 
to suppose that any of the Genevese ministers would take 
up his cause against their spiritual head. The reply to his 
note was drawn up under the inspection of Calvin himself. 
Its tone was sharp and bitter. The prisoner was irritated, 
rather than convinced by it; and gave in another paper 
in which he repeated his former views, and in which he 
also memorialised the council against the arrogance and 
oppression of Calvin, who, he said, instead of refuting his 
objections, had answered only with reproaches and evasions. 
He also prayed for the assistance of counsel, and to be 
liberated on bail, that he might be able to prepare his 
defence without constraint or molestation.* But his petition 
was disregarded ; and he saw that it was necessary to alter 
his tone. The qualified recantation which he now made 
contained, however, an irony too plain to be mistaken, or 
overlooked. He declared, that as so many wise men had 
unanimously condemned his opinions, he admitted that it 
would be best to concur with them, even if they dreamt, 
than to trust his own waking thoughts ; f but at the same 
time apologised for what he had said of Calvin. The tenor of 
this paper was not, however, calculated to satisfy either 
Calvin or the council; and it was referred to the considera- 
tion of five jurisconsults. Their opinion was for death by 
fire. But though the council commuted this sentence for 
a milder one, and condemned Gentile, on the 15th of August, 
1558, to be beheaded ; yet nevertheless the lawyers became 
alarmed at the severity of the judgment which they had 
pronounced, and which they had not anticipated would be 



Explicatio, Sec, p. 576, B. 



f Ibid., p. 577, A. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



GENTILE. 



453 



capitally enforced. They accordingly begged a respite for 
Gentile, in order that it might be ascertained how far he 
had really changed his opinions ; for though the irony of his 
retractation seemed to be very plain, it was, after all, nothing 
but an inference. * Gentile was now made aware of the 
danger of his position, and signed an unconditional recanta- 
tion. Calvin and the ministers doubted its sincerity, but 
left the case in the hands of the civil magistrate. The 
council found him guilty of perjury in having violated the 
confession which he had signed, and of being a declared 
enemy to the church, and condemned him to make the 
amende honorable : that is, to be stripped to his shirt, and 
bare-headed and bare-footed, with a lighted torch in his 
hand, to beg pardon on his knees ; to be led in that state 
through the principal thoroughfares, and with his own hand 
to burn what he had written, f This sentence was carried 
into execution on the 2nd of September. Gentile was also 
forbidden to leave Geneva, and was required to give his 
parole not to do so; but no sooner was he free than he 
betook himself to his friend Gribaldo at Farges, where he 
also found Alciati and Biandrata. J 

We shall here shortly pursue the remainder of Gentile's 
history, though the catastrophe of it scarcely belongs to this 
subject, as it occurred after Calvin's death. From Farges, 
Gentile went to Lyons, in the hope of finding employment, 
that city being then one of the principal book marts of 
Europe. Many Italian merchants resided there, particularly 
Luccese; from one of whom Gentile borrowed the works of 
the Fathers, and applied himself diligently to the study of 
them. The more ancient ones, as Ignatius, Justin, and 
Tertullian, seemed to him to confirm his views respecting 

* Spon, ii. 80, note g. Trechsel, ii. 327. 
+ His sentence will be found at full length in P. Henry, iii. 288, note. 
t Trechsel, ii. 330, from whom the following account of Gentile is principally 
taken. 



454 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



the Trinity ; but not finding them supported by the later 
Fathers, as Augustin, Jerome, and Chrysostom, he began, 
with a vain self-confidence, to question their orthodoxy. 
The fruit of his studies appeared in a work called " Antidota;" 
in which, taking the chapter on the Trinity in Calvin's 
" Institutes" as a text-book, he sought to defend himself 
from the attacks and refutations of the Genevese ministers. 

His health obliging him to seek a milder climate, Gentile 
repaired to Grenoble, where for some time he supported 
himself as a professor of jurisprudence ; but becoming 
suspected by the inquisition, he found it prudent to return 
to Farges ; though he had contrived to evade the immediate 
censures of that tribunal by pretending that his only aim 
was to oppose Calvin and the Reformed Church. At Farges 
he was apprehended, and imprisoned by the bailiff of Gex ; 
but was dismissed on bail, having previously, at the instance 
of the clergy of that district, been required to give in a 
confession of faith. He now betook himself once more to 
Lyons, and shortly afterwards his confession appeared in 
print. A preface was added, purporting to be from the 
printer, and addressed to the sons of the church, as well as 
two appendices ; one consisting of forty theological protheses, 
and the other of the same number of " pious and learned 
remarks on the Athanasian creed."* The confession 
was dedicated to Wurstenberger, the bailiff of Gex, and 
professed to have been drawn up at his command, with the 
intention of making it appear to have been published with 
Wurstenberger's approval, f The work purported to be 
printed at Antwerp, though really printed at Lyons; but 
Gentile declared that he had not sanctioned its publication. 
He affirmed that he had communicated it to his friend 
Alciati, who had taken copies of it, one of which must have 
gotten into the hands of a printer, who published it with 



* For these latter, see Trechsel, ii., Beil. 16. The former will be found 
subjoined to Calvin's tract. + Ibid. f ii. 358. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



GENTILE. 



455 



a preface : and there is reason to believe that this was really 
the case.* 

It was in 1561 that the book appeared; and Calvin 
immediately answered it. His reply consisted of two tracts ; 
one containing an account of Gentile's case, and the other a 
short refutation of his principles. In this latter Calvin's 
aim seems rather to have been a reductio ad absurdum than 
a serious defence of the doctrines attacked. 

The reports circulated about Gentile rendered him an 
object of suspicion to the inquisition of Lyons, as he had 
previously been to that of Grenoble ; but he again contrived to 
make it appear that his attacks were directed against Calvin, 
and not against the Trinity; and after an imprisonment of 
fifty days he was dismissed. Still he felt his position 
insecure ; and at the invitation of Biandrata, who had been 
living for some years in Poland without molestation, he 
repaired thither in the summer of 1563, accompanied by 
Alciati. 

A spirit of toleration had prevailed in Poland from the 
very beginning of the Reformation. Punishment for heresy 
was abandoned, though persecution still continued among 
the Roman Catholics. Prince Radzivill was the great 
protector of the Reformation in that country ; to whom 
Calvin, after his controversy with "Westphal, transferred the 
dedication of his "Commentary on the Acts/' which had 
been previously inscribed to Christian, King of Denmark.f 
Several letters addressed to the King of Poland, and to some 
of the Polish nobility, show the interest which Calvin took in 
the religious affairs of that country. { The tolerant spirit 
of its government rendered it, however, a convenient refuge 
for heretics of all kinds, and more particularly for the 
Antitrinitarians. Lselius Socinus, whom Calvin had at first 
recommended to Prince Radzivill with the greatest warmth, 



* Trechsel, ii. 336, note 2. 
f P. Henry, iii. 422. J See Epp. 190, 218, 220, 222. 



456 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xiii. 



insidiously attempted to undermine his faith in the orthodox 
doctrine. The works of Servetus were much read in Poland; 
but Peter Genesius was the first who brought Antitrinitarian 
tenets into a system there. In 1556 he openly avowed 
them; and their progress was so rapid as to threaten the 
very existence of the Reformed Church in that country.* 
Before his death Calvin began to suspect the whole nation; 
and one of his latest works was his "Admonition to the 
Polish Brethren." 

Shortly after Calvin's death, however, religious affairs took 
a different turn in that kingdom. In the year 1566, an 
edict appeared against all Antitrinitarians and Anabaptists, 
and Gentile was obliged to fly. After visiting Moravia and 
Austria, he returned in the June of that year to Gex ; but 
his friend Gribaldo was no longer alive to receive him. He 
had been one of the victims of the plague, which visited 
Switzerland in 1564, and which, in that and the following 
year, carried off 38,000 persons. Wurstenberger was still 
bailiff of Gex; and, with an infatuation scarcely credible, 
Gentile sent him a paper containing the programme and 
theses of a theological disputation, which he was desirous of 
holding by his authority. The theses were three in number, 
on Gentile's favourite doctrines. They were accompanied 
with a challenge to all the theologians of France and Savoy 
to appear within a week at Gex, and defend Calvin's pro- 
positions against him on scriptural grounds : the penalty 
of death to await the vanquished party.f A singular proof 
either of his self-sufficiency, or of his fanaticism ; unless, 
indeed, the shortness of the notice, and the dreadful penalty 
attached to defeat, do not rather bestow on the whole 
proceeding the air of a mere bravado. 

Instead of complying with Gentile's request, Wursten- 
berger caused him to be apprehended, and referred his case 
to the Bernese government. On being pressed by the bailiff, 



P. Heniy, iii. 441. 



f Trechsel, ii. 358. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



GENTILE. 



457 



Gentile acknowledged that it was without his sanction that 
he had dedicated his "Confession" to him; but he, at the 
same time, maintained that it had been printed without his 
own consent or knowledge. 

After an imprisonment of five weeks, Gentile was con- 
ducted to Berne, where he arrived on the 19th of July, 1566. 
The hatred entertained by the Bernese towards Geneva, 
which might have been favourable to his cause, was coun- 
teracted by the re-appearance of the Anabaptists in con- 
siderable numbers; with the errors of which fanatical and 
pestilent sect, Gentile himself was thought to be infected. 
Beza strenuously exerted himself to procure his condemnation, 
and with that view sent several papers and documents from 
Geneva, and even visited Berne in person ; where he busied 
himself with informing the ministers of the disturbances 
raised by Gentile and his friends in Poland, of which they 
had previously been ignorant.* 

The trial of Gentile commenced on the 5th of August. 
His different books and papers were produced against him, 
namely his " Antidota," a Latin poem on the doctrine of 
the church respecting the Trinity, an Italian and Latin 
tract on Christ's humanity, and a copy of his printed Con- 
fession, addressed to the bailiff of Gex. He was charged, 
besides his heresies, with the many deceits and evasions to 
which he had resorted; and as he would not retract, but 
adhered firmly to his opinions, sentence of death was pro- 
nounced upon him, and he was beheaded on the 10th of 
September, f 

* Trechsel, ii. 362, 369. Spon, ii. 85, et seq. 
f Such is the account of this affair given by Trechsel and Dr. Henry 
(iii. 290). But Minus Celsus, a contemporary, tells us that Gentile was not 
executed for heresy, but for returning to Berne, after having been banished on 
pain of death if he came back. See his Bisputatio, p. 224, Christlingee, 1577. 
Another of these Italian Antitrinitarians was Francis Stancarus, a native 
of Mantua, who also found refuge in Poland. Calvin's short tract, entitled, 
Responsvm ad Fratres Polonos, is directed against his errors (June, 1560) ; 
and also the Responsum Genevensis Ecclesiaz contra Stancarum, Ep. 352. 



458 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



But to return from this digression to the affairs of Calvin 
and Geneva. Since 1556, Calvin had been occupied with 
the design of founding a gymnasium or school at Geneva, 
and a college of theology ; but the state was poor, and its 
quarrels with Berne diverted attention from home affairs. 
After the renewal of the Bernese alliance, however, the con- 
juncture seemed more favourable for carrying out Calvin's 
views; more especially as Bonnivard, the former prior of St. 
Victor, had left his whole estate towards the establishing of 
these foundations. The school, which, properly speaking, 
was only an enlargement of the former one, was accordingly 
founded in 1558, and consisted of seven classes.* The 
college was established in the following year. These institu- 
tions were under the immediate direction of the clergy, who 
chose the rector, as well as the professors and masters, 
subject, however, to the approval of the council. Calvin drew 
up a body of laws for the government of these institutions, 
and likewise set forth the articles of faith, which all the 
students were obliged to subscribe on their matriculation. 
The scholars were obliged to attend divine worship once 
every day, and thrice on Sundays. An hour was devoted to 
psalm-singing. In summer the classes began at six in the 
morning; in winter at seven. The schools were solemnly 
opened in St. Peter's church, on the 5th of June, 1559, in 
the presence of the magistrates, the principal inhabitants, and 
six hundred scholars. On this occasion Calvin made a speech 
in French on the utility of these institutions; Roset, the 
town secretary, read the laws and declared the rector ; and 
after Beza, who was the person appointed to this last office, 
had delivered a Latin oration, the ceremony concluded with 
a prayer by Calvin. On the following day the classes were 
opened. Much time was devoted to the study of ancient 
languages and literature. The authors read were Virgil, 
Cicero, Ovid's Elegies, Caesar, Isocrates, Livy, Xenophon, 



* Ruchat, vi. 238. 



chap, xiii.] SCHOOLS FOUNDED AT GENEVA. 



459 



Polybius, Homer, Demosthenes, Horace, &c. A library was 
founded, to which Bonnivard bequeathed all his books, and 
to which Robert Stephens presented a copy of all the works 
that issued from his press. Yet so late as 1699, this library 
contained but 3,000 volumes.* Calvin's auditors are said to 
have amounted to a thousand daily ; and this school un- 
doubtedly contributed to spread his doctrines in Germany, 
Holland, France, and England. He endeavoured, as appears 
from his correspondence, to draw to it men the most renowned 
for their genius and learning ; but he was not a little assisted 
in these endeavours to provide his school with suitable pro- 
fessors, by an occurrence which took place in the territories 
of Berne, just previous to the foundation of it, and to which 
we must now advert. 

It has been already related that Calvin's doctrine of 
predestination had excited great difference of opinion, and 
bitter dissensions, in the Pays de Vaud; some declaring 
for Calvin, and others for the more moderate views of 
Melancthon and Bullinger. This doctrine became the theme 
of almost every sermon. The ministers attacked one another 
from the pulpits, each side consigning its opponents to ever- 
lasting perdition : nay, it even formed the common topic of 
conversation and dispute in barbers' shops and taverns. f In 
spite of the prohibitions of the Bernese government, and of 
the alliance renewed between that city and Geneva, these 
heart-burnings and quarrels still continued. Many, and 
indeed the most distinguished, of the ministers in the Pays 
de Yaud were thorough Calvinists. These men repeatedly 
complained to the government of Berne of the prohibition to 
preach on the subject of predestination; and also pressed 
eagerly and unceasingly for the introduction of excommuni- 
cation, and of the Genevese discipline, to which the Bernese 
manifested a decided repugnance. At length the storm 
broke out in the classis of Thonon. In the spring of 1557, 



P. Henry, iii. 386. 



f See Haller, Diary, Mus. Helv. } ii. 117. 



460 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII 



four ministers of that class who persisted in preaching the 
unmitigated doctrine of absolute decrees, thus setting the 
edicts of Berne at defiance, were deposed from the ministry. 
Upon this they proceeded to Berne to make their submissions, 
and ask forgiveness; but, though the class of Lausanne 
warmly seconded their request, the Bernese council refused 
to revoke their sentence. The four ministers then retired to 
Geneva ; where, after some discussion, the council consented 
to give them an asylum. * 

Viret, however, and the other ministers of Lausanne, were 
not damped by this example, nor by the threats of the 
Bernese government. On the 13th of March, accompanied 
by his two colleagues, he appeared before the Lausanne 
council of Sixty, to request them to come to a resolution on 
some articles which he had before proposed to the little council, 
for the establishment of church discipline ; but the Sixty 
having signified their determination to adhere to the edicts of 
Berne, Viret, piqued at his ill-success, threatened that he 
would not administer the communion at the approaching 
festival of Easter. Hereupon some deputies of Berne, who 
were at Lausanne for the purpose of hearing appeals, begged 
the council of Sixty to use their best offices with Viret to 
induce him to alter his determination ; for that minister was 
still much respected at Berne, and they did not wish to see 
the matter carried to a disagreeable extremity. 

Viret yielded to the representations of the council, 
especially as they contained some promises of amendment, 
and held out some hopes that fresh powers would be given 
to the consistory. And, indeed, in order to conciliate the 
Lausanne ministers, the council of Berne published an edict 
on the 27th of May, by which they commanded their 
bailiffs : 1st, To establish consistories in every parish, to 
watch over scandalous sinners; whereas before, consistories 
had existed only in the towns. 2nd, To appoint guards, or 



* Ruchat, vi. 256. 



chap, sin.] DISSENSIONS IN THE PAYS DE VAUD. 



461 



spies, to report disorders to the consistories ; which latter 
were to exhort and censure offenders, and in case of contu- 
macy, to hand them over to the bailiffs for punishment, 
according to the exigency of the cases, and the laws provided. 
3rd. To furnish all the consistories with copies of these laws. 
4th. To see that they were rigorously observed, and to spare 
nobody. At the same time the Bernese government wrote 
to the ministers of the classis of Lausanne, to inform them 
of what they had done for the amendment of discipline ; but 
absolutely refusing to grant them the power of excommuni- 
cation, or of privately examining ignorant persons, or those 
suspected of heterodoxy. * 

Viret and his party, fancying that they saw in these con- 
cessions a path opened to the complete attainment of their 
object, drew up a plan of discipline, and forwarded it to the 
seigneurs, or council of Berne, begging their approval of it ; 
but at the same time adding a threat that, if it was rejected, 
they would all demand their dismissal, and quit their churches : 
and in a letter which they sent with this document they com- 
plained of being forbidden to preach on predestination, and 
of the alienation of church property. This was a violent 
step. The council of Berne were naturally indignant at 
it, and cited twelve of the principal of Viret's party to 
appear at Berne on the 15th of August, to hear their final 
determination. Among those cited, besides Viret himself, 
were Beza, then Greek professor at Lausanne, and two other 
professors, and two regents of the college. 

This company appeared at Berne a day before the 
appointed time, when the council gave them a mild, and 
even polite, answer to their application, but amounting in 
fact to a refusal. They reminded Yiret and his friends that 
their conduct was not conformable to their oath and sub- 
scription on their appointment ; they denied that their edicts 
forbade preaching on the subject of predestination, but merely 

* Ruchat, \i. 259. 



462 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. xiir. 



the handling of that topic in an unedifying and scandalous 
manner ; they stated that they were determined to abide by 
their Reformation, but allowed that faults might have been 
committed on both sides, which each should endeavour to 
amend; they promised to take care that the rules of the 
consistory should be more rigidly enforced, and that church 
property should be employed to reasonable and christian 
uses; they said that they could not accept the project of 
reform which had been sent to them, and that if the 
ministers would abandon it, they would treat them as well 
as possible ; but that if they persisted in their design, and 
preferred their dismissal, they would not hinder their 
departure. * And two days afterwards they published an 
edict to the preceding effect. 

On the 2nd of November Yiret and his colleagues sum- 
moned the other ministers of their class, and acquainted 
them with the answer of the Bernese council. It was 
resolved to write again to that government, and to press 
upon it the acceptance of the proposed discipline. Yiret also 
wrote privately in his own name, declaring " that he could 
not administer the Lord's Supper in his church, on the 
ensuing festival of Christmas, on account of the vices 
and disorders which prevailed, unless their excellencies 
established better order ; and begged them not to treat 
only with himself and his colleagues respecting the affair 
of excommunication, but to communicate with the churches 
of the other Reformed cantons." 

In their answer to Viretfs letter the council of Berne said, 
that they were very sorry to hear of the disorders that 
occurred at Lausanne; but they did not see that excom- 
munication would furnish any remedy, on account of several 
inconveniences which would result from excluding persons 
from the communion. It could not be hoped that the 
church would ever be so perfect as to leave nothing to be 



* Ruchat, vi. 2G1. 



chap, xin.] VIRET AND OTHERS BANISHED. 



463 



wished for ; but they knew of no better method of repressing 
these disorders than the exact observance of their laws, 
which they were very sorry to see violated ; and stated, that 
if they knew the offenders, they would punish them according 
to their deserts. They concluded by exhorting Viret to 
continue in the exercise of his charge. To the general 
letter of the class they replied more drily, but to the same 
effect. 

Viret and his party still, however, persisted in their plans. 
Further communications took place between them and the 
government of Berne ; but as the latter, though mild and 
temperate, remained inflexible, Viret resolved to carry out 
his threat of not administering the communion at Christmas ; 
and, under pretence of instructing the ignorant and recon- 
ciling those who had quarrelled, got the magistrates of 
Lausanne to put it off for a week. The Bernese govern- 
ment was naturally much offended at Viret' s thus flying in 
its face. Letters were despatched to Lausanne forbidding 
the Lord's Supper to be celebrated on the 1st of January, 
the day to which it had been adjourned; and towards the 
end of that month, three members of the Bernese council 
proceeded to Lausanne; who, having assembled the class, 
announced that their excellencies had dismissed Viret, and 
his colleague Valier, for their disobedience, and for the inno- 
vation which they had recently ventured to make. Hereupon 
several other ministers demanded to be dismissed, the chief 
of whom were Beza, Augustin Marlorat, and Kaimond 
Merlin, the Hebrew professor.* Several others who hesitated 
to conform to the edicts were subsequently dismissed, and 
some of the more violent banished. Viret and his colleagues 
went to Geneva towards the end of 1558. On the same 
occasion more than a thousand persons are said to have left 
Lausanne for that city, who were of opinion that by the 
late proceedings the word of God, as well as the church 



* Ruchat, vi. 270, 



464 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



itself, had been proscribed ; but when they afterwards came to 
weigh the matter more maturely, says Haller, they repented 
of their rash counsel.* Many of these fugitives seem 
subsequently to have proceeded into France. The schools of 
Lausanne were altogether deserted by the professors. 

Some of the ministers of the class of Lausanne now found 
themselves in an awkward predicament. They had been 
very zealous for the introduction of the Genevese discipline, 
yet they found it hard to give up their situations, and go 
into exile, in order to support their consistency ; and their 
embarrassment was increased by the variety of opinions 
which they heard pronounced upon their conduct. In this 
perplexity they resolved to consult Calvin and Farel, and 
accordingly wrote to Geneva and to Neufchatel. Calvin's 
answer is not extant ; that of Farel, which is still in existence, 
is very characteristic of the intemperate zeal which dis- 
tinguished him. He reproaches his correspondents with 
their stupidity in doubting for an instant that excommu- 
nication is the very essence of the ministry. To doubt of 
it, he represents, is to doubt whether Christ should be heard 
in the church, or whether we should receive what he has 
established. And as they had said that their perplexity was 
increased because they had no example of persons who had 
been in the same situation as themselves, he places before 
them that of the other ministers who had just been dis- 
missed and banished; and roughly reproaches them with 
either stupidity or cowardice, in not marking this example, 
or in hesitating to follow it. He cites the case of the 
Levites of the ten tribes, who, when King J eroboam erected 
the golden calves, and bade them adore those idols, left his 
kingdom and retired to that of Judah. He tells them that 
they should all leave the country rather than recognise any 
other head of the church than Jesus Christ, or receive other 
laws of discipline than this ; that is to say, excommunication. 

* See his Diary, Mus. ffelv., ii. 125. 



CHAP. XIII.] 



farel's intemperate zeal. 



465 



He blames them for their inconstancy in being now so 
undecided and embarrassed, whereas, when they were in 
prison, they had all been animated with a true courage to 
sustain the privileges of the Lord. Lastly he tells them, that 
the opinion of the brethren of Neufchatel was, that they should 
remain in their churches, provided they were permitted to 
enforce the discipline in its full extent; that they should 
sound the praises of the ministers who had been dismissed, 
or who had demanded their dismissal, and not suffer them 
to be treated as deserters ; but rather that they should pro- 
claim from the pulpit that they had been unjustly expelled, 
and that in their persons a great wrong had been done to 
the churches; and that they should denounce the wolves 
and mercenaries who had intruded themselves into their 
places, &c* 

On this letter Ruchat makes the following excellent 
remarks: "I do not wish," he says, "to enter thoroughly 
into this question, and to inquire whether excommunication 
be of divine or human origin ; I shall content myself with 
observing that an attentive reader may have remarked, in 
the whole course of this history, that Calvin and Farel, 
though zealous partisans of this species of discipline, and 
thoroughly persuaded of its divine origin, nevertheless kept 
up throughout their lives an intimate and brotherly corre- 
spondence with the pastors of different churches, both of 
Germany and Switzerland, in which excommunication was not 
received, and particularly with those of Zurich, and Bullinger, 
their chief. It may have been observed that Calvin himself, 
writing to Bullinger in 1553, acknowledged that there were 
many learned men, persons, too, of worth and piety, who 
rejected excommunication. We have seen that, in 1557, 
Farel, in a letter to the same pastor, expressed the greatest 
veneration and the most tender affection for the church and 
ministers of Zurich, whom he calls a very holy assembly; 

* Ruchat, vi. 279. 

H H 



466 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[ CHAP. XIII. 



yet he was aware that excommunication was not recognised at 
that place. What can one say to this ? It must necessarily 
be admitted either that they had two scales, and double 
weights, in warmly censuring the practice of Berne, even 
to the comparing of the laws of its reformation to the 
golden calves of Jeroboam, whilst they said nothing to the 
Zurichers, or rather indeed wheedled them (though I think 
I should wrong these great men in passing such a verdict on 
them) j or we must allow that there was a good deal of 
weakness in their conduct — and who is the man that does 
not sometimes trip ? — and that the dislike they had conceived 
against the Bernese had the effect of magnifying objects in 
their imagination. For if excommunication be an institution 
established by the word of Jesus Christ, like the sacraments 
of baptism and the Lord's Supper, these two great men 
ought equally to have regarded as heretic all the churches 
which rejected it, and to have broken off all commerce with 
them, as well with that of Zurich as with that of Berne. 
For would they have kept up any correspondence and 
brotherly intercourse with churches that rejected, for example, 
baptism or the Lord's Supper ? I am quite sure they would 
not. But if they thought that they could conscientiously 
regard as brothers the pastors whom I have mentioned, and 
even testify for them the greatest attachment and most 
sincere veneration, they should have concluded that there is no 
such great harm in rejecting excommunication, and should not, 
consequently, have spoken in so disobliging a manner of the 
laws and reformation of Berne, nor have so harshly treated as 
wolves and mercenaries the ministers who submitted to that 
code. For, in the most delicate cases of conscience, it is certain 
that the surest method should be followed, that is, the method 
which the mind most clearly discerns; and in the case in 
question, it was doubtful (at least with m&ny) if excommu- 
nication be of divine authority ; whilst, on the other hand, 
it was clear and certain that the government would not 



chap, xiii.] YIEET, BEZA, AND OTHERS, AT GENEYA. 467 



allow of it. Was there any harm, then, in following the 
surest method, which was to obey the government?" 
Indeed, we may remark that it was chiefly the French 
ministers, as Calvin, Farel, Beza, and their admirers, who 
insisted so stoutly on the right of excommunication. The 
Swiss and German ministers, men of more sedate and 
moderate temper, found that they got on very well without 
it. But to return. 

Viret, Beza, and the rest of the Lausanne fugitives were 
received with open arms by Calvin. Viret was admitted to 
his former office of minister at Geneva ; but remained there 
only about two years, when he was called into France. 
Calvin not only made Beza his colleague in the ministry, but 
also, as before related, appointed him to the rectorship of 
the new academy ; where he delivered lectures in theology in 
alternate weeks with Calvin. Anthony Chevalier was 
appointed professor of Hebrew ; Francis Berauld of Greek ; 
and John Tagaut of philosophy; so that the college of 
Geneva may be said to have been in a great measure founded 
on the ruins of that of Lausanne.* The state, however, 
was poor, and the pay of the professors small. After a 
while it became necessary to dismiss them for want of funds, 
and Beza seems to have undertaken their duties unassisted. 
Between the years 1580 and 1590 the school was supported 
by a subscription in England, f 

Towards the end of 1558 it was heard with astonishment 
that Farel, who was then sixty-nine years of age, and who 
had lived to that advanced period of life in a state of 
celibacy, had married a young wife; the daughter of one 
Madame Torel, of Bouen, who had fled to Neufchatel for 
the sake of religion, where she became Farel's house- 

* Ruchat, vi. 307. 

f P. Henry, iii. 389. There is a letter extant from Beza to Sir Christopher 
Hatton, dated in October, 1582, in which he requests assistance. See Sir 
H. Nicolas, Life of Hatton, p. 273. 

H H 2 



468 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. xiii. 



keeper. The girl had been brought up in Farel's house — a 
circumstance which especially scandalised those who dis- 
approved of his marriage.* Farel communicated his inten- 
tion to Calvin ; who, perceiving that the business had 
proceeded too far to be arrested, advised his friend not to 
linger over it, but to complete the betrothal immediately, 
and, till the marriage was celebrated, to withdraw a little 
while, for the sake of decency. During this interval of two 
months Farel placed his intended bride in the house of 
P. Bolot, one of the French refugees at Neufchatel. With a 
jargon peculiar to the elect, Farel, in his letter to Calvin, 
requested him to consider if any edification could be elicited 
from a step which he allowed that all must at least regard as 
an imprudent one.f The marriage was solemnised on the 
20th of December. Calvin interceded with the clergy of 
Neufchatel to pardon this little escapade in their aged pastor, 
on the score of thirty-six years of faithful service. In his 
letter to them he says : " I am in such perplexity that I 
know not how to address you. It is certain that our poor 
brother, Master William, has for once been so ill-advised, 
that we must all feel confounded with shame on his account. 

Half a year ago, the poor brother would have boldly 
asserted that he who, at so great an age, should marry so 
young a girl, should be shut up as a dotard." J 

In October, 1558, Calvin was attacked with an inter- 
mittent fever ; and, though he got rid of the disorder at the 
end of eight months, yet it left his naturally feeble constitu- 
tion, exhausted as it was by continual study and labours of 
various kinds, in so reduced a state, that he never afterwards 
recovered his former health. § On the 19th of November, 
1558, Calvin writes to Bullinger : "I am forbidden to leave 
my bed-room, and am thus compelled to neglect almost all 



* Ruchat, vi. 226. 
X Ibid., p. 365. 



f Ruchat, vii., App. 364. 
§ Beza, Vita Calv., anno 1558. 



chap, xiii.] fakel's makriage — calvin's illness. 469 



my duties. These troubles are aggravated by the length of 
their duration, as there is very little hope of amendment till 
the winter shall be over."* And in a letter to a French 
correspondent in February, 1559, he says : " It is now the 
fifth month since I have been labouring under a quartan 
ague, which has hitherto confined me to my chamber, as my 
body was attenuated, and my strength debilitated. A re- 
laxation of the disorder now holds out a hope of recovery." f 
But though during this period, Calvin was compelled, by the 
advice of his physicians, and the remonstrances of his friends, 
to abstain from preaching and lecturing, he nevertheless 
spent his days, and sometimes his nights, in dictating letters 
to his numerous correspondents, and in proceeding with the 
works on which he was engaged. He was now preparing 
the third edition of his " Institutes," the last published by 
himself, which appeared both in Latin and French in 1559. 
He was also busy with another edition of his " Commentaries 
on Isaiah;" or rather, he was re-writing the entire work. 
Yet he was always complaining how .hard it was to be idle ; 
though, says Beza, we who were in health might have been 
thought idle in comparison of him. 

This new edition of his " Commentaries on Isaiah," Calvin 
dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, who had recently succeeded 
to the English throne. From his sick bed he wrote a letter 
to Secretary Cecil, dated on the 29th of January, 1559, in 
which he adverts to the exhortations which he had addressed 
to Elizabeth, and admonishes Cecil himself to use his most 
earnest endeavours for the re-establishment of Protestantism, 
and for the abolition of all remnants of Popish superstition. J 
Elizabeth, however, regarded Calvin with suspicion and ill-will, 
for having spoken against the government of women in a con- 
versation with Knox at Geneva. In another letter to Cecil 
in November, 1559, Calvin seeks to excuse himself, and to 

* MS. Tig., wpud P. Henry, iii. 384. + MS. Bern., Ibid. 

J See Ep. 275. 



470 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAF. XIII. 



avert the queen's displeasure, as follows : " I certainly- 
remarked ingenuously, that as the government of women was 
a deviation from the primary and genuine order of nature, 
it was to be considered, no less than slavery, as amongst the 
punishments inflicted on man's disobedience ; but I added, 
that certain women had been sometimes so endowed, that 
the singular blessing which appeared in them plainly showed 
them to have been raised up by heavenly auspices; either 
because God, by such examples, wished to condemn the sloth 
and cowardice of men, or the better to show forth his glory. 
I cited Deborah, and added, that it was not in vain that God 
promised, by the mouth of Isaiah, that queens should be the 
nurses of the church. By which prerogative it is clear that 
they are discriminated from private women." * 

But with whatever eye he may have been regarded by the 
queen, Calvin does not seem to have entirely forfeited the 
confidence of the English clergy. From a letter of his, 
written in May, 1560, f to Grindal, then Bishop of London, 
it appears that the latter had consulted him respecting the 
choice of a pastor for the French church in London; and 
that Calvin had sent over Des Gallars to fill that office ; a man 
with whom he was exceedingly intimate, and who sometimes 
served him in the capacity of amanuensis. J This choice was 
highly approved of by the bishop. § 

During the same period Calvin was in correspondence 
with John Knox, who was employed in establishing the 
Reformed Church in Scotland on the Calvinistic model, both 
as to doctrine and discipline. Knox quitted Geneva in 
January, 1559, and on his departure was honoured by 
having the freedom of the city conferred upon him: a 
privilege which Calvin himself did not attain till the end 

* MS. Bern., apud P. Henry, Hi. 411, note. ' + Ep. 295. 

X Beza, 1. c. It has been already mentioned that Des Gallars was the author 
of the " Ecclesiastical History " attributed to Beza. 

§ P. Henry, hi. 410, note. 



chap, xm.] INTERCOURSE WITH ENGLAND, ETC. 471 



of that year. * We find a hasty letter from Knox to Calvin 
dated on the 28th of August, 1559, in which he states that he 
is writing amid the thunder of French cannon, and requests^ 
Calvin to answer the two following questions : 1. Whether 
illegitimate children, and the offspring of papists and excom- 
municated persons, should be admitted to baptism before the 
parents have repented, and submitted themselves to the 
church, or the children themselves are old enough to ask for 
baptism on their own account? 2. Whether monks and 
mass-priests should be allowed to receive their revenues, 
who, although they confess their former errors, neither are, 
nor can be, of any service in the Reformed church ? Knox 
himself negatived both these questions ; for which, he says, 
he was deemed too severe, not only by the Papists, but even 
by some Protestants, f 

Calvin's answer evinces moderation and good sense. He 
is of opinion that baptism should not be refused in the cases 
put, provided sponsors could be obtained. With regard to 
the latter question, he thinks that the persons alluded to 
should be treated with mildness and humanity ; as it would 
be a hard case for those who had been entangled in the net 
of error through ignorance, and had spent a great portion of 
their lives in luxury and idleness, to be turned adrift without 
any means of procuring a livelihood. J He seems, indeed, 
to have had some suspicions that Knox's zeal was too 
intolerant. From a subsequent letter to the Scotch reformer 
it would appear that he avoided mixing himself up too 
intimately with Knox's party : and though he could not but 
rejoice to see his own principles taking root and flourishing 
in Scotland, yet at the same time he cautioned Knox against 

* " Plusieurs ministres et professeurs ont demandd et obtenu la Bourgeoisie, 
et a ce sujet il a e'te dit, que l'on prie, M.Calvin de 1' accepter aussi. II a 
beaucoup remercie de cet honneur en disant que s'il ne l'a pas demande plutot, 
c' etoit pour ne pas donner lieu a des soupcons auxquels il n'y a que trop de 
gens de portes." — Rigistres, 25 Dec, 1559. Gre'nus, Fragmens Biographiques. 

f Calvin, Epp. et Resp. Ep. 283. $ See Ep. 285, Nov. 8th, 1559. 



472 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIII. 



intolerance. " In the matter of ceremonies," he observes, 
" I trust that your rigour, though it must necessarily displease 
many, will yet be moderate. Care, indeed, must be taken to 
purge the church from all the defilements which flowed 
from error and superstition ; and you must even sedulously 
endeavour that the mysteries of God be not polluted by 
absurd or insipid mixtures. But with this exception, some 
things, though not quite to be approved of, must, you know, 
be tolerated.* 



Ep. 305, April 23rd, 1561. 



chap, xiv.] STATE OF KELIGION IN FRANCE. 



473 



CHAPTER XIV. 

State of Religion in France— Persecution of the Protestants — Conspiracy of 
Amboise — Progress of Calvinism in France — Danger and escape of Conde 
— Demand for Genevese preachers — The Triumvirate — Conference of 
Poissy — The Queen favours the Hugonots— They preach in public— Edict 
of January — Apostasy of King Anthony — Massacre of Vassy — Beza 
remonstrates — Religious wars — Battle of Dreux — Assassination of Guise — 
Peace of Orleans. 

We must now return for a while to the religious affairs 
of France, in which Calvin had always taken a deep interest, 
and in which he was now about to be called upon to play 
a more active part. 

Although the severity of Francis I. towards the Protestants 
increased during the latter years of his reign, it was never- 
theless kept in check by the influence of his sister Margaret, 
and of his mistress the Duchess d'Etarnpes. The accession 
of Henry II., in 1547, threatened the Reformed church with 
fresh and more vigorous persecution. Brutal and ignorant, 
Henry, nevertheless, like his predecessor, was governed by 
his mistress Diane de Poitiers, Duchess of Valentinois, who 
was as hostile to the Protestants as the Duchess d'Etampes 
had been favourable. It was in his reign that the inquisition 
was first formally established in France, an edict for its erection 
having been brought into the parliament of Paris in 1558, 
at the same time that Henry announced the recovery of 
Calais. The cardinals of Lorraine, Bourbon, and Chatillon, 
were named grand inquisitors, with power to arrest, imprison, 
and put to death, persons of whatever rank suspected of 
heresy. Chatillon, however, was already a Protestant at 
heart. * The cardinal of Lorraine committed the power of 
inquiring into heresies to only one of the chambers of parlia- 

* Lacratelle, Ouerres de JteL, i. 81. 



474 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



ment ; which showed such alacrity in condemning wretches 
to the flames, that it obtained the infamous name of la 
chambre ardente, or burning chamber. 

Nevertheless the new opinions continued to spread and 
flourish during Henry's reign. Their followers became 
numerous, and distinguished themselves by wearing a red 
cap. The first Protestant church at Paris was established in 
1555 ;* and in May, 1559, a general synod was held, at which 
a confession of faith was drawn up, the same as was presented 
two years afterwards by Bezato Charles IX., at the conference 
of Poissy. This was founded entirely on Calvin's principles, 
as laid down in his " Institutes," and which he had been able 
to carry out only imperfectly at Geneva.t The Reformed 
doctrines had particularly spread among the higher classes ; 
and the Fauxbourg St. Germain had thence obtained the name 
of "the little Geneva/'} It has been already mentioned 
that in September, 1557, a congregation of 400 persons 
was surprised in the Rue St. Jaques, among whom were 
several court ladies, and even some attached to the person of 
the queen. The house was surrounded by the mob, and the 
adjoining houses illuminated, in order that none might 
escape in the dark. Many fought their way through the 
crowd, but more than 200 were arrested, some of whom were 
of the first quality. Catherine de Medicis herself is said to 
have shown symptoms of favouring the Protestants, and to 
have protected some of those taken on this occasion; in 
opposition, it has been conjectured, to the Duchess of 
Valentinois, her husband's mistress. § 

The Protestants now numbered in their ranks some of the 
chief nobility of France, and even members of the royal 

* Hist, des Eglises Ref. } i. 99. It was in this year that Villegagnon estab- 
lished a colony of Calvinists in the Brazils ; the first, perhaps, ever founded 
from religious motives. — See Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 158. Niceron, vol. xxii. 
Maimbourg, p. 100. 

f See P. Henry, iii. 469. This confession, consisting of forty articles, is 
given at length in the Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 173, et seq. + Ibid., p. 231. 
§ Lacratelle, Guerres de Rel., i. 239. 



chap, xiv.] STATE OF BELIGION IN FRANCE. 



475 



family ; as Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, the first 
prince of the blood, and his brother Louis, Prince of Conde ; 
Admiral Coligny, and his brother d ; Andelot, colonel of the 
French infantry; the Vidame de Chartres, the Baron de 
Jarnac, the Count of Bochfoucault, and others. The 
conversion of many of these, however, must be ascribed to 
other causes than conviction. Works of religious contro- 
versy were but little read in France ; and with the exception 
of Coligny, and a few others, the French nobility had neither 
leisure nor inclination for such inquiries. Disgust at some 
real or imagined slight or injury at court was frequently the 
cause of a resort to Geneva. Something must also be 
attributed to fashion ; a term which may seem strange when 
used with reference to one of the most precise and rigid 
forms of Christianity; but which may be justified by the 
fact that the adoption of Calvinism did not produce any 
amelioration of morals among the higher classes in France, 
which remained as lax as ever.* The custom of psalm- 
singing, too, was not without its effect on a lively and 
susceptible nation ; though in this case our imagination must 
not wander to the nasal melody of our own tabernacles. 
The psalms had been versified by Marot, the fashionable poet 
of the day, and were sung to favourite airs. Marot was 
proscribed by the Sorbonne, but his work created quite a 
rage ; and an edition of it published at Lyons, in 1555, was 
even dedicated to the Cardinal of Lorraine, t Thus Marot's 
aspirations, in his Address to the ladies of France, were 
almost literally fulfilled : — 

" 0 bien heureux qui voir pourra 
Fleurir le temps, que Ton orra, 
Le laboureur a sa charrue, 
Le charretier parmi la rue, 
Et Partisan en sa boutique 
Avecques un Pseaume ou Cantique 
En son labeur se soulager," &c. 



* Lacrateile, Guerres de Eel., i. 325. + (Euvres de Marot, iv. 212. 



476 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV 



The Pre aux clercs, an open space of ground belonging to 
the University of Paris, was occupied by the Calvinists for 
their meetings; not, however, without some violent, and 
even bloody, contests with the monks of the abbey of St. 
Victor, who endeavoured to exclude them. On one occasion, 
in the year 1557, some Protestants assembled on this spot, 
began singing Marot's psalms, and were soon joined by an 
immense multitude. For several days afterwards 5000 or 
6000 persons, among whom were the King and Queen of 
Navarre, assembled every evening for the same purpose ; nor 
would the parliament of Paris interfere to prevent them. 
D'Andelot, however, was arrested for having attended these 
meetings, and for having performed divine service at his 
house according to the Calvinistic method. During an 
angry examination by the king in person, D'Andelot was bold 
enough to assert that he regarded the mass as an execrable 
profanation. He was imprisoned, and deprived of his 
colonelcy ; but the influence of his brother, the Cardinal de 
Chatillon, one of the inquisitors, prevented matters from 
being carried to extremity, although the Pope, Paul IV., 
pressed for his punishment ; and he was liberated from prison 
on consenting to hear a mass, notwithstanding that he 
refused to renounce his religious opinions.* 

Thus, on the whole, Protestantism had been steadily gain- 
ing ground in France during the reign of Henry II. ; and, 
towards its close, brighter prospects seemed to be opening on 
the followers of the Reformation. The king had even come 
to the resolution of dismissing the Duke of Guise and his 
brother the cardinal ; and in a lit de justice held on the 15th 
of June, 1559, the presidents Harlai, De Thou, and Seguier, 
openly condemned the persecutions which had been resorted 
to, on the ground of their impolicy.t But before the month 
had expired, Henry was wounded by the lance of Mont- 
gomery in a tournament, held to celebrate his sister's 

* Hist, des Egl. Rif. y i. 141. + Ibid., i. 267. Lacratelle, Guerres de Bel., i. 304. 



chap, xiv.] PEKSECUTION OF THE PKOTESTANTS. 477 



marriage with the son of the Duke of Savoy, and died a few 
days afterwards of the injury. Francis II., the heir to the 
throne, was sixteen years of age, and therefore, by the laws 
of France, entitled to assume the reins of government ; but 
his delicate health and weakness of intellect rendered a 
regency necessary. The King of Navarre, as first prince of 
the blood, had the best pretensions to be regent ; and as the 
queen-mother herself had shown some favour to the Calvinists, 
and as the influence of the Duchess of Valentinois was now 
at an end, the hopes of that party were naturally raised to a 
high pitch. But these appearances were deceitful. Guise, 
and his brother the cardinal, in conjunction with the queen- 
mother, seized upon the government, whilst the young king, 
under pretence of ill- health, was kept a prisoner at Blois. 
The King of Navarre proceeded from Beam to Paris, where 
the regency seemed to be awaiting him ; and promised the 
Reformed congregations, which he passed on his road, to 
promote their interests ; but on his arrival he was treated 
with many indignities, which he did not even make a show 
of resenting; and after assisting at the coronation of the 
young king at Rheims, on the 18th of September, was dis- 
missed on the pretext of conducting Francis's sister to her 
husband, the King of Spain.* Catherine de Medicis, under 
the influence of the Guises, now began to show an undis- 
guised hostility towards the Protestants, who were pursued 
with the utmost rigour and cruelty. Paris presented the 
aspect of a city taken by assault. Bands of armed police on 
foot and horseback passed to and fro, conducting prisoners 
of all ages, sexes, and conditions. The Calvinists were forced 
to fly, leaving their houses and property at the mercy of the 
sbirri, or sergeants, of the Cardinal of Lorraine. Auctions of 
furniture were established at the corners of the streets, which 
were choked with waggons carrying off the spoil. So great 
was the plunder, that the rich became suddenly poor, and the 



Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 226. 



478 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



poor rich. One De Mouchy was appointed inquisitor, who 
assumed the name of Demochares. This man kept in pay an 
army of informers ; and the most unscrupulous means were 
resorted to in order to inflame the minds of the populace, 
already sufficiently inclined that way, against the Calvinists. 
Witnesses were suborned to testify that they had surprised 
them in the commission of the most infamous debaucheries. 
Violence and fanaticism were openly encouraged, and the 
people allowed to erect crosses and rude statues in the streets, 
which they compelled the passengers to salute, and to sup- 
port by contributions of money. * The fires of persecution 
were again lighted ; and one of the first victims was Anne 
du Bourg, a clergyman of a good family in Auvergne, who 
was hanged and afterwards burnt, on the 22nd of December, 
1559. 

Towards the end of that year the discontent excited by 
the conduct of the Guises gave birth to the formidable 
conspiracy of Amboise. Calvin was very generally accused 
of being its originator, and he himself admits that he was 
acquainted with it from the beginning ; but affirms that he 
used all his endeavours, both publicly and privately, to 
prevent its execution. f Geoffroy de la Barre, or du Barry, 
Sieur de la Benaudie, a gentleman of Perigord, and chief 
mover in the plot, was well known to Calvin, and boasted 
to him at Geneva of having been appointed to conduct it. 
De la Barre was a man of broken fortunes, and ready for 
any desperate undertaking. Under his superintendence the 
plan of the conspiracy was concerted partly at Vendome, 
the residence of the King of Navarre, and partly at La Ferte 
sous Jouare, that of the Prince of Conde. The object of 
it was to seize the Guises, and bring them to trial; and 

* Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 233, et seq. Lacratelle,, i. 340. 
+ Calvin to Bullinger, Ep. 293. On the other hand some authors, as Basnage 
{Hist, de la Rel. des Eglises Ref., ii. 196), have affirmed that it was concocted by 
Catherine de Medicis, to check the power of the Guises. But this seems 
highly improbable. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



CONSPIKACY OF AMBOISE. 



479 



Conde had consented to join in it only on the condition that 
nothing should be attempted against the king, or royal 
family. One of the conspirators, a lawyer named Avenelles, 
becoming alarmed as the time for action approached, revealed 
the plot to a servant of the Cardinal of Lorraine. That 
prelate, so insolent and cruel in prosperity, and so prompt to 
shed the blood of others, was totally destitute of courage, 
and trembled at the sight of a naked sword. He was 
overwhelmed with terror at the news; but the Duke of 
Guise, to whom fear was unknown, immediately adopted the 
most energetic methods to baffle the conspirators. The 
court was removed from Blois to Amboise, where the castle 
was secure against a coup de main. By a stroke as bold as 
it was politic Guise made his very enemies become surety for 
the king's safety. Some of the chief conspirators, including 
Coligny, and even Conde himself, were summoned to the 
monarch's defence. To Conde was intrusted the command 
of the castle of Amboise ; and thus, though apparently 
placed in the post of honour, he was in reality a prisoner. 

The conspirators nevertheless persisted in their enterprise; 
but their plans were again betrayed by a Captain Lignieres.* 
De la Barre, whilst marching to join the Baron de Castelnau, 
who, with 300 men, had seized the castle of Noizai, was 
intercepted in the forest of Chateau Renaud, himself killed, 
and his troops dispersed. Castelnau capitulated; but being 
conducted to Amboise was arrested on entering the town. 
The Duke of Guise was now for the second time named 
lieutenant- general of the kingdom; and, at the instance 
of the Chancellor Olivier, proclaimed a general amnesty, 
provided the conspirators laid down their arms. A large 
body of them, however, ignorant probably of what had 
occurred, marched upon Amboise. Guise fell upon and 
routed them with dreadful slaughter. Conde himself was 
forced to fight against them. The amnesty was revoked, 



* Davila, i. 75. 



480 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



and at the instance of the Cardinal of Lorraine, the prisoners 
at Amboise, to the number of 1200, were put to death 
without trial or inquiry : only some of the leaders were 
reserved for torture, in order to get evidence against the 
Bourbon princes and the Colignys. The only name men- 
tioned by them, however, was that of Conde ; and after all the 
evidence possible had been extracted from them, they were 
executed in presence of the court. Conde being arrested 
and examined, contented himself with declaring that he had 
not conspired against the king; giving the lie to all who 
charged him with having done so, and offering to maintain his 
assertion by single combat. As a fitting termination to this 
strange affair, Guise proposed to become his second ; but of 
course no accuser appeared, and Conde retired from court, 
meditating on schemes of vengeance.* It was after this 
conspiracy that the name of Hugonots was first applied to 
the Calvinists, the etymology of which has given rise to so 
many conjectures. f 

Such was the issue of the conspiracy of Amboise, which, 
instead of overthrowing the Guises, resulted, like all 
unsuccessful attempts of the same sort, only in strengthening 
their hands. Calvin was strongly suspected at court of 
having been privy to the whole affair. The king was advised 
to destroy Geneva, as the source of all these disturbances ; 
and so strict a watch was kept upon Calvin, that the very 
words of a letter to a friend, in which he had given an 
account of the state of things in France, were repeated in the 
French privy council. J 

Calvin's doctrines, indeed, were now making such a rapid 
progress in France as might well alarm the government. 
They were spreading in Poitou, Saintonge, Aquitaine, 

* Davila, i. 65, et seq. Maimbourg, p. 127, et seq. Lacratelle, Guerres de 
Rel.f i. 343, et seq. 

+ See Pasquier, Recherches de la France, livre viii., ch. lv., p. 857. Hist, des 
Eglises Ref., i. 269. % Calvin to Sulzer, MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 476. 



chap, xiv.] PROGRESS OP CALYINISM IN FRANCE. 481 



Languedoc, Provence, Dauphine, and particularly in Nor- 
mandy ; where they nourished under the protection of Coligny, 
whose post of admiral gave him much influence in that 
province. Nearly thirty years before, however, the Refor- 
mation had gained so many adherents there, that it began 
to be called " little Germany." * The Calvinists of Normandy 
used now to assemble in the open air, in bodies of three or 
four thousand, f Even several of the French prelates were 
inclined towards Calvinistic tenets. In this alarming state 
of things it was deemed advisable to take some measures for 
the safety of the kingdom. The rigour of persecution was 
somewhat relaxed by the edict of Romorantin, by which all 
inquiries into heresy were intrusted to prelates alone, and 
all parliaments and judges expressly forbidden to meddle 
with the subject. An assembly of notables was summoned 
to meet at Fontainebleau on the 21st of August, 1560, to 
determine on what course should be taken. At this meeting, 
over which the young king presided, Admiral Coligny, with 
his brothers d'Andelot and Cardinal Chatillon, the Vidame 
de Chartres, and others, appeared on the Protestant side. 
They were escorted by a large body of cavalry. The King 
of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde, were invited, but 
refused to attend. J 

Before the business of the day began, Coligny, to the 
surprise of the assembly, suddenly rose and presented a 
petition to the king from the Protestants of Normandy, 
praying that they might be allowed to meet for worship in 
the day-time, in order to avoid the suspicions and calumnies 
to which their nocturnal meetings exposed them : adding, 
that, if the king would permit him, he could get the petition 
signed by 50,000 men. He further complained of the mode 
in which the young king was brought up ; his person being 
surrounded with guards, and he thus taught to look upon 

* Bucer to Luther, Aug. 25th, 1530, apud Gerdesius, iv. 73. 
t Calvin, Ep. 300. Maimbourg, p. 135. Davila, i. 89. 

I I 



482 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



his subjects as enemies, when he should rather seek to 
live in their hearts and affections.* Charles de Marillac, 
Archbishop of Vienne, also made a long speech in favour of 
religious freedom, which he concluded by advising the calling 
of a national council. f The Duke of Guise and the cardinal 
displayed much violence on this occasion. When Coligny 
talked about getting his petition signed by 50,000 men, the 
former retorted : " And I will place myself at the head of 
100,000, who will support the contrary with their blood." % 
Yet on the whole the Catholic party was not averse to an 
assembly of French theologians, provided they confined their 
discussions to any practical abuses existing in the church, 
and meddled not with articles of faith. The result of the 
deliberations at Fontainebleau was, that the states should be 
assembled at Orleans in the following October. § 

Shortly after this meeting, Jaques Sage, or Sague, a 
servant of the King of Navarre, was arrested on his road to 
Beam. Suspicious papers were found upon him ; and, being 
threatened with torture, he revealed a plot of the Prince of 
Conde's, to which the King of Navarre seemed partly to 
accede, to seize Paris by means of Marshal Montmorency, 
the constable's son, who was governor of it ; to revolt Picardy, 
and raise the Hugonots; to depose the queen-mother and 
the Guises; to declare the young king under tutorship till 
the age of twenty-two; and to appoint as regents, the 
King of Navarre, the Prince of Conde, and the Constable 
Montmorency. The last, though a bigoted Catholic, was 
at this time hostile to the Guises, in consequence of some 
slights which he had received from them after the death of 
Henry II., and had retired from the court to his seat at 
Chantilly. 

In consequence of this discovery, the Bourbon princes 

* Calvin, Ep. 300. 

*t* Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 277. Maimbourg (p. 146) attributes this speech to 
Jean de Montluc, Bishop of Valence, who was also favourable to the Calvinists. 
X Pasquier, Lettres, livre iv. § Davila, i. 93. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



DANGER AND ESCAPE OF CONDE. 



483 



long hesitated as to whether they should attend the meeting 
of the states summoned at Orleans. At length., however, 
they resolved to go thither; but no sooner did they make 
their appearance, than Conde was seized, put upon his 
trial, and ultimately condemned to lose his head. But from 
this fate he was rescued by the sudden and unexpected 
demise of Francis II., who expired after a short illness, on 
the 5th of December, 1560. 

This event made a great change in the aspect of affairs. 
It was at first anticipated that it would annihilate the power 
of the Guises, which had been in a considerable degree 
founded on the marriage of the late king with their niece, 
Mary Stuart, afterwards Queen of Scots. Moreover, Francis' 
brother, who now succeeded to the throne, with the title of 
Charles IX., was a boy of ten years of age, and it was thought 
that nothing could deprive the King of Navarre of his lawful 
claim to the regency. But the artful conduct of Catherine 
de Medicis, and the weak and spiritless character of King 
Anthony, soon dissipated all these anticipations. By the 
advice, it is said, of the Chancellor FHopital, Catherine now 
adopted that policy of balancing one party by the other, by 
which she succeeded for some years in retaining the reins of 
government in her own hands. Anthony was induced to 
abandon his pretensions to the regency, by being admitted to 
some show of power, and made lieutenant-general of the 
kingdom. The Guises were still retained at court, whither 
also Montmorency, and others who had been disgraced, 
returned. The queen-mother herself exercised all the 
functions of the regency, without having been appointed to 
it by the states, or even formally assuming the title of 
regent.* This policy of Catherine's necessarily led her to 
give some encouragement to the Calvinists, and was perhaps 
one of the chief causes of the religious wars which ensued. 

Yet soon after the accession of Charles IX., we find the 



* Anquetil, Esprit de la Ligue, i. 89. 

i i 2 



484 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. X1T. 



queen-mother addressing a letter in his name to the council 
of Geneva, in which she represented the preachers sent forth 
from that city as the main cause of the troubles in France, and 
requested that they might be recalled. Upon receipt of this 
letter, the Genevese council summoned the ministers to their 
presence, and acquainted them with the charge which it con- 
tained. Calvin, who replied in the name of his brethren, said 
that they did indeed exhort the ministers whom they appointed, 
to do their duty, and to spread abroad the tidings of salvation ; 
but he denied that they were the cause of the disturbances 
which prevailed in France, and affirmed that they had done 
all in their power to keep back those who had been desirous 
of going to Amboise.* Geneva, however, was undoubtedly 
the chief magazine which supplied France with preachers. 
The following passage, in a letter from Calvin to Bullinger, 
shows the great demand that existed for them, and that the 
former was not always very scrupulous about the means 
which he used to supply it. " We are asked," says he, " for 
preachers on all sides ; inquirers for them besiege my door, 
and contend for them with pious emulation. We are, 
however, quite exhausted ; nay, we have lately been obliged 
to send such journeymen out of the booksellers' shops as 
possessed some slight tincture of learning and religious 
knowledge."t This fully corroborates a proclamation which 
appeared in the preceding reign, in which the troubles of 
France are ascribed to certain preachers sent from Geneva, for 
the most part mechanics, and men without any education. J 
The warranty of being genuine Genevan seems to have coun- 
terbalanced these defects : just as a favourite mark or stamp 
often enables a tradesman to pass off a bad article. Another 
letter from a Genevese minister, named De Beaulieu, to 
Farel, also shows the extraordinary demand that existed 

* P. Henry, iii. 482. + MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 483, May 24th, 1561. 
J "La plupart gens mecaniques, et de nulle litterature." — Memoires de 
Condi, i. 9. 



chap, xiv.] DEMAND FOR GEKEYESE PREACHERS. 485 



at this time in France for preachers. " I cannot express to 
you," the writer says, " what mercy God daily shows to our 
church. From several places, as Lyons, Nismes, Gap, Grasse, 
and from the neighbourhoods of Orleans and Poictiers, 
persons are come hither demanding labourers for the new 
harvest. They are particularly pressing us from Tournon 
and the Agenois, and that, too, at the instance of their 
bishop ; for in those parts more than three hundred parishes 
have abolished the mass, but are yet without a minister. The 
poor people cry out for hunger, but there is none to distribute 
to them the bread of life. It is extraordinary what multitudes 
attend Calvin's lectures ; I should think more than a thousand 
daily. Viret is at work in the district of Nismes ; Bolot has 
been sent to Macon-sur-Saone. I have heard it said that if 
from four to six thousand preachers could be sent there would 
be room for them all."* 

A nattering prospect, this, for Calvin ! He was now, indeed, 
in the zenith of his influence and power. Not only had he 
triumphed over his domestic enemies, and obtained almost 
complete control over the little republic of Geneva, but 
Protestantism, modelled strictly after his own principles, 
seemed on the point of prevailing throughout France. All 
this influence, too, he enjoyed without sharing in the dangers 
of the struggle ; but sat at home like a sovereign, coun- 
selling his agents with his pen. The Reformed church at 
Paris numbered among its members some of the greatest 
men in France, and Calvin was invited to become its minister. 
But he knew how to appreciate the blessings of security 
and the charms of an almost absolute power; and it was, 
therefore, without much difficulty that he acceded to the 
council's request that he should remain at Geneva. 

Catherine, in pursuance of her newly-adopted policy, 
began to treat secretly with the leaders of the Hugonots, 
and to show them some favour and affection; either with 



* Ruchat, vi. 435. The letter is dated Oct. 3rd, 1561. 



486 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



the view of keeping them quiet by inspiring them with false 
hopes, or by-way of counterpoise to the power of the Guises, 
with whom, however, she never openly broke. By a decree 
of the 28th of January, 1561, all prisoners on account of 
religion were dismissed, and all proceedings instituted on 
that score abrogated; but, at the same time, all con- 
troversies, as well as the use of abusive terms, such as 
heretic and papist, were forbidden, and all illegal meetings 
prohibited.* On the return of the young king from Kheims, 
where he had been consecrated on the 15th of May, 1561, 
Admiral Coligny presented to him the same petition which 
had caused such a sensation at Fontainebleau ; and Catherine 
undertook that it should be referred to the parliament of 
Paris. 

These proceedings on the part of the queen-mother caused 
a closer union among the Roman Catholic party. Jealousy 
towards the house of Lorraine had driven the Constable Mont- 
morency to join the Bourbon princes, and the Chatillons, his 
nephews. But when he saw that the religion of the kingdom 
was seriously endangered by Catherine's conduct, he forgot his 
private animosities in his zeal for the Catholic faith, and, for 
the purpose of maintaining it, was induced to reconcile 
himself with the Guises. The Duchess of Valentinois, and 
the Marshal St. Andre, were the means of effecting this recon- 
ciliation. Expensive and prodigal, St. Andre had repaired 
his broken fortunes, in the reign of Henry II., by a share 
of the confiscated property of the Calvinists ; and even 
Montmorency himself had participated in the same booty.f 
Thus a double motive operated on this bigoted old man, 
who trembled at once for his religion and for his property. 
It was early in 1561 that he entered into a league with 
the Duke of Guise, and the Marshal St. Andre, for the 
purpose of supporting Roman Catholicism; and, by way of 
solemn confirmation, the parties to it took the sacrament 



* Davila,i. 138. 



f Anquetil, i. 102. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



THE TKIUMVIKATE. 



487 



together on the Easter-day of that year.* The ramifications 
of this league, which obtained the name of the Triumvirate, 
extended however beyond France. Philip II. of Spain was 
its declared head ; and the Emperor of Germany, the Pope, 
and some of the Italian princes, engaged to give it their 
support. One of the .first results obtained through its 
influence was the famous edict of July; which, though it 
protected the Hugonots from insult, and gave them an 
immunity for past offences, yet, on the other hand, it forbade 
them the exercise of their religion, either in public or 
private, till a general council should have been called; and 
meanwhile declared the Roman Catholic faith to be the 
only one permitted in the state. The Protestants, however, 
were strong enough to disregard this prohibition ; and 
the court found it advisable to connive at their religious 
assemblies. 

Coligny's indignation at these proceedings roused him to 
propose that the King of Navarre should be proclaimed 
regent in place of the queen-mother. Alarmed at this step, 
the latter began to think seriously of effecting a reconciliation 
between the two religious parties. The demand of the 
Prince of Conde, and of the admiral, for a conference 
between the Calvinistic ministers and the prelates of France, 
a scheme which had been long in agitation, was now assented 
to by the Cardinal of Lorraine ; and it was arranged that the 
meeting should be held at Poissy on the 10th of August. The 
cardinal may perhaps have been partly induced to take this 
step by Francis Baudouin, a jurisconsult of some eminence, 
who had once been a pupil of Calvin's, but afterwards 
became one of his bitterest opponents. This man had 
brought from Germany a book just published by George 
Cassander, containing proposals for the union of Romanist3 
and Protestants, but of such a nature as rendered them 
wholly inadmissible by the latter. Baudouin, however, was 

* Maimbourg, Hist, cho Calvinisme, p. 196. 



488 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



patronised by the King of Navarre, who thought him just 
the man for the conjuncture, and introduced him to the 
queen-mother, and to the Cardinal of Lorraine.* 

From various causes the conference was put off till the 9th 
of September. The leaders of the Reformed party in Trance 
wished Calvin to attend it, and an application to that effect 
was made to the council of Geneva ; but the latter would not 
permit Calvin to go unless hostages of the first rank were 
given for his safety.f The state of Calvin's health, too, at 
this period, made it unadvisable for him to undertake so 
long a journey; and the management of the conference was 
therefore intrusted to Beza. Before proceeding to Poissy, 
Beza went to Zurich, to persuade Peter Martyr, who was 
then residing at that place, to accompany him. Here also 
he came to an understanding with Bullinger as to the 
language he should use at the conference, as the latter had 
been displeased with his conduct at Worms. Beza set off 
for France without any safe-conduct, and arrived at St. 
Germain-en-Laye on the 23rd of August. During his 
absence his duties at Geneva were undertaken by Calvin, and 
his salary was continued to his wife. J 

Beza has described his reception at St. Germains, and the 
progress of the conference, in several letters to Calvin. § The 
leaders of the Hugonot party, the King of Navarre, the Prince 
of Conde, and Coligny, as well as the Cardinals Bourbon 
and Chatillon, welcomed him warmly. On the day after 
his arrival he preached at the prince's hotel, to a numerous 
and distinguished audience. After supper, about nine o'clock, 
he was suddenly summoned to the chamber of the King of 
Navarre, where to his great surprise he found the queen- 

* .Schlosser, Leben des Th. de Beza, p. 101. Maimbourg, p. 209. The title 
of Cassander's book was : " De Officio pii et publico? Tranquillitatis vere amantis 
Viri in hoc Religionis Discidio. f P. Henry, iii. 499. 

J " On donne les gages de M. de Beze a sa femme, et on lui fait offrir ce dont 
il aura besoin quoique il soit absent." — Registres, 11 Nov., 1561. Grenus, 
Fragmens Biographiques. § See Calvin, Epp. et Resp. Ep. 309, et seq. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



CONFERENCE OF POISSY. 



489 



mother, surrounded by the Cardinals of Lorraine and Bourbon, 
Madame de Crussol, and others. Nothing disconcerted at 
this unexpected rencontre, Beza notified to the queen the cause 
of his coming, and expressed his desire to serve his country ; 
to which Catherine graciously replied that it would afford her 
the greatest pleasure to see affairs settled on such a foundation 
as should secure peace and happiness to the kingdom. The 
Cardinal of Lorraine then addressed Beza, saying that he 
had made his acquaintance before from his writings, and 
exhorted him to use all his endeavours for the establishment 
of concord : adding that he had now an opportunity to 
appease by his presence those tumults which, whilst absent, he 
had excited by his works. Hereupon Beza again declared his 
loyalty towards his king and country; and affirmed that even 
if it were possible for a person of so small consideration as 
himself to create disturbance in so great a kingdom, yet that 
he had ever been averse to such a course, as his writings 
would testify, and as would be still further manifest in the 
course of the impending conference. Catherine then asked 
him if he had written anything in French ? Beza replied 
that he had published in that language a translation of the 
Psalms, and an answer to the " Confession of Faith *' put 
forth by the Duke of Northumberland. Catherine was led to 
put this question because Beza had been denounced to her as 
the author of a libellous poem which had been circulated in 
France the year before ; and he now, in the queen's presence, 
affirmed that he had had no hand in it. Catherine next 
inquired about Calvin's age, and state of health ; after which 
the cardinal drew Beza into a long argument respecting 
the real presence in the eucharist ; and then, after some 
gracious words addressed to Beza by the queen and by the 
cardinal, the party broke up. The latter afterwards gave 
out that he had worsted Beza in argument; and a report 
was even spread at Poissy that he had converted him to the 
Romish faith * 

* Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Epp. 309, 310. 



490 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



The conference was opened on the 9th of September, in 
the refectory of the nuns of Poissy. The Reformed Church 
was represented on this occasion by twelve ministers and 
twenty-two deputies; making, with Peter Martyr, who 
arrived soon after Beza, thirty-five persons. Against them 
was arrayed all the splendour of the French court, and all the 
learning and authority of the French hierarchy. The young 
king presided, surrounded by the queen-mother, the King 
and Queen of Navarre, the Duke of Guise, the Cardinals 
of Lorraine, Tournon, Bourbon, d'Armignac, together with 
many bishops, prelates, doctors of the Sorbonne, and 
theologians convoked from the most celebrated universities 
of the kingdom.* The states met at Pontoise at the same 
time; and it required all the art of Catherine to prevent 
them from depriving her of the regency. 

In everything but learning Beza was probably better 
qualified than Calvin to conduct a conference of this 
description. His handsome person and noble bearing, his 
presence of mind and natural fluency of speech, qualified 
him admirably to treat with Catherine and her courtiers. 
With the theologians arrayed against him he was not so well 
fitted to cope. He had not, as we have seen, seriously 
applied himself to the study of divinity till after his arrival 
in Geneva in 1548, when he wanted time and opportunity 
to obtain a thorough mastery of the Fathers of the church, 
and of the theology of the schools; aud had, therefore, 
devoted himself in preference to the critical study of the 
Scriptures in their original languages, f He was himself 
painfully aware of his deficiency in patristic lore ; and in a 
letter addressed to Calvin from St. Germains before the 
opening of the conference, expressed his apprehension of 
not being able to unravel the webs of the veteran theological 
sophists whom he saw opposed to him, and of rebutting 
their quotations from the Fathers, in a manner that might 



* Davila, i. 151. 



f Schlossei', Leben des Th. de Beza, p. 28. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



CONFERENCE OF POISSY. 



491 



not expose him to defeat before that august and learned 
audience.* On this head Calvin consoled him by observing 
that he would soon have Peter Martyr with him, the most 
learned of the Reformers. And as Calvin had never 
entertained the opinion that the conference would have any 
results of moment, he advised Beza to lay aside his appre- 
hensions, and to take his word that the French prelates 
would never come to any serious disputation, f 

The young king opened the conference with a short speech, 
in which he directed his chancellor to explain more at large 
to the meeting the reason of its being called together. The 
Cardinal of Tournon, who, as dean of the college of cardinals 
and primate of France, had the management of the debate, 
addressed the assembly after the chancellor, thanking the 
king for his speech ; after which the Reformed ministers 
were called in. Before he began his speech, Beza, together 
with the rest of the Calvinistic deputies, and such of the 
nobility as were inclined to their tenets, fell down upon his 
knees, and lifting up his hands towards heaven, pronounced 
the Lord's Prayer and the Protestant confession, concluding 
with a short prayer suited to the occasion.! He then 
addressed the assembly in a long and laboured speech, which 
was heard with silent attention till he came to the subject of 
the eucharist : but when he said, that, though the body of 
Christ is really partaken of in that sacrament, yet that the 
body is as far from the bread as heaven is from earth, a great 
sensation was excited among the prelates. They exclaimed 
that he had blasphemed ; and notwithstanding the king's 
presence, some made as if they would leave the hall. 
Cardinal Tournon demanded that he should be silenced, 
or that the clergy should be permitted to depart ; but this 
was not acceded to. The sitting was closed by a speech 
from that cardinal. On the following day Beza wrote a 

* Calvin, Epp. et Resp., Ep. 310. + Ep. 313. 

J Schlosser, p. 117, Hist, des Eglises Ref., i. 502, et seq. 



492 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



letter to the queen-mother, to explain what he had said 
about the eucharist. The next meeting was appointed for 
the 16th of September, when the Cardinal of Lorraine 
replied on two points; the eucharist, and the authority of 
the church. Claude Despence, the celebrated theologian, is 
said to have composed his speech for him, and sat behind 
him during its delivery as prompter.* 

After these two meetings the Roman Catholic party 
determined that the discussion should no longer be carried 
on before the king, nor in a public hall ; but that twelve 
persons, selected from each side, should continue the con- 
ference in a private house. P. Martyr, who had not arrived 
in time for the public disputation, came to Poissy three days 
before the private one, which took place on the 24th of 
September. Beza addressed the meeting on this occasion, 
and was answered by Despence. When Beza was going to 
reply, a little White monk, named De Xaintes, interrupted 
him by a violent and abusive speech, in which he drew a 
parallel between the Protestant ministers and the Anabaptists, 
who pretended to be inspired by the Holy Ghost. Towards 
the close the Cardinal of Lorraine wanted to make the 
ministers sign a passage extracted from the " Confession of 
Wittenberg," acknowledging the real presence ; and by way 
of enforcing his argument, produced a passage from Calvin's 
reply to Hesshus, in which the word substantialiter is used 
with regard to the eucharist. This was, however, a plain 
misapprehension of Calvin's views. At another discussion 
on the 26th of September, P. Martyr, not being well 
acquainted with French, addressed the meeting in Italian ; 
but the Cardinal of Lorraine would not allow him to proceed 
in that language. Lainez, a Spaniard, and general of the 
Jesuits, spoke at this sitting, and protested altogether against 
the meeting, as unauthorised. His speech, which lasted an 
hour, was nothing but a heap of abuse. Yet it had the 



* Hist, des Egl. Be/., I, 525. 



chap, xiv.] THE QUEEN FAVOURS THE HUGONOTS. 493 



intended effect : for the conference was subsequently reduced 
to five managers on each, side ; and thus gradually dwindling 
away, it finally broke up on the 13th of October, and, as 
Calvin had predicted, without coming to any result. 

Nevertheless, the conference of Poissy gave an impulse to 
the Reformed party in France. They took heart, and began 
to preach openly; nay, they even got possession of some 
churches ; a proceeding which Calvin seems to have dis- 
approved of, as impolitic* The countenance shown them 
by Catherine herself helped to encourage them. A Catholic 
writer even considers it doubtful whether she may not have 
really felt some inclination towards their tenets at this time, 
through the influence of her confidants, Jacqueline, Duchess 
of Montpensier, and Frances, Duchess of Usez, two declared 
Hugonots, who were continually speaking to her in favour of 
Calvin's reform : as well as by the example of Margaret and 
Jeanne, the two Queens of Navarre, and of Renee, Duchess 
of Ferrara, and Margaret, Duchess of Savoy, f From a 
letter of Catherine's to the Bishop of Rennes, she does not 
appear to have been very well satisfied with the conduct of 
her prelates at Poissy; and even spoke but coldly of the 
speech of the Cardinal of Lorraine. J But, whatever may 
have been her real feelings, her conduct towards the 
Hugonots at this juncture, even if it was merely the effect of 
a temporising policy, had the same influence in encouraging 
them as if it had been sincere. 

Upon the dissolution of the assembly of Poissy, Beza 

* i( The occupation of the churches is odious to the king's council ; nor 
indeed have I ever approved of the proceeding till some public settlement should 
he come to, which I hope will be in a short time."— Calvin to Farel, Sept. 28th, 
1561, apud P. Henry, iii. 519. + Maimbourg, Hist, du Calv.,^. 190. 

% " Que les ministres Reformes avoient presente au colloque de Poissy leur 
confession de foi et leurs remonstrances ou preuves ; qu'elle avait espere que 
Messieurs les Prelats y repondroient, mais qu'elle avait attendu long temps sans 
voir d'autre reponse que celle du Cardinal de Lorraine, qui etoit fort prudente et 
catholique, dont son dit ambassadeur pourroit faire telle part a TEmpereur 
qu'il jugeroit a propos." — Basnage, Eglises Ref., ii. 431. 



494 



LTFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



prepared for his departure ; but the queen detained him, 
saying that he was a Frenchman, and that she stood in 
need of his assistance to quell, if possible, the disturbances 
which afflicted the kingdom.* We find Calvin writing to 
him on the 21st of October, and expressing a wish for his 
speedy return, as he was himself too ill to undertake his 
duties at the school, which had now been neglected for a 
whole month, f The council, too, seems to have been 
anxious for his presence, as not only the school, but the 
affairs of the church also were falling into disorder, for want 
of effectual superintendence. J But when Calvin found that 
Beza might be of more use in France than at Geneva, he 
advised him to remain. § The leaders of the Hugonots were 
also desirous of retaining Beza; and in December we find 
the Queen of Navarre, Conde, and the admiral, soliciting 
and obtaining the consent of the council of Geneva, that he 
should be spared to them a few months longer, with a view 
to the advancement of religion. || 

Under these circumstances Calvinism seemed about to 
make a rapid progress in France. Beza obtained permission 
to preach in public ; and on the day after Christmas-day, 
delivered two discourses to numerous congregations ; one in 
the Fauxbourg St. Antoine, and the other in that of St. 
Marcel. D'Andelot, at the head of a numerous band, 
escorted Beza through the streets of Paris on these occa- 
sions ; to the surprise of the Roman Catholics, who assembled 
in great numbers, but did not venture to make any opposi- 
tion. They resolved, however, to get up a disturbance if 
the preaching was repeated. A day or two afterwards a 
minister named Malot was appointed to deliver a sermon in 
the Fauxbourg St. Marcel. Beza had heard of the intention 

* Schlosser, p. 147. f Ep. 324. 

% See Calvin's letter to Beza, MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 521. 
§ At this time Calvin corresponded with him under the assumed name of 
Passelius. 

II Registres, 22 Dec, apud Gre'nus, Fragmens Biographiques. 



chap, xiv.] THE HUGONOTS PREACH PUBLICLY. 



495 



of the Catholics to make this an occasion for violence and 
riot, and had at first determined not to be present; but 
on hearing that a large congregation of Protestants had 
assembled, it appeared to him that his absence might be 
construed into a dereliction of duty. He therefore went, 
escorted, by command of the queen-mother, by the prefect of 
the watch and his men. Scarcely had Malot begun his 
discourse, when the priests in the neighbouring church of 
St. Medard commenced ringing the bells with all their 
might, as if about to say vespers. One of Malot's congrega- 
tion, who civilly requested them to desist, was run through 
the body with a partisan. This was the signal for a general 
affray. The priests sounded the tocsin to call the people to 
arms. After a desperate conflict, the Hugonots, led by the 
prefect of the watch, succeeded in taking the church by 
assault. Thirty- six of the Eoman Catholics were captured, 
and among them ten priests, most of whom had been wounded. 
They were conducted through the city to prison, amid 
a crowd of people who looked on quietly. On the following 
day there was another tumult in which several of the 
Romanists fell. In a letter to Calvin in which he describes 
these proceedings, Beza professes not to approve of them, but 
nevertheless gives God thanks for the victory.* 

In January, 1562, there was another conference on a 
smaller scale at St. Germains. On this occasion the Protes- 
tants were represented by Beza, Marlorat, Peruscel, Burbaste, 
and a minister of the Queen of Navarre. The chief person on 
the other side was the Cardinal of Tournon, who was supported 
by a great many doctors of the Sorbonne, Jesuits, &c. 
Catherine was present, with the cardinals and privy council. 
Like that of Poissy, however, this meeting led to no result. As 
there appeared no chance of agreement even on the first head 
of discussion, which regarded images, and which seemed to be 
the plainest, the queen-mother broke up the conference. 



* Calvin, Epp. et Eesp., Ep. 329. 



496 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[CHAF. XIV. 



Beza describes her as listening to these debates with the 
greatest patience, and as exhorting both sides to concord.* 

After the conference of Poissy, Catherine had been advised 
to call an assembly of notables, with a view to the publication 
of, at least, some provisional edict by which the religious 
troubles might be appeased. This step was violently opposed 
by the Guises and their party, who were perhaps fearful lest 
such an assembly might inquire into their former government. 
They insisted that the edict of July should remain in force : 
but when they found the queen resolute in calling this 
assembly, the Catholic leaders quitted the court in dudgeon, 
and retired to their country seats. t The assembly, composed 
of the presidents and counsellors of the parliaments of France, 
met at St. Germains. The result of their deliberations was 
the famous decree known as the Edict of January, from its 
being dated on the 17th of that month, 1562. J The 
Chancellor FHopital has the credit of having carried its 
provisions, by his eloquence, which were in substance : That 
all the penalties contained in former edicts against the 
Protestants should be provisionally suspended, till the deter- 
mination of a general council ; that they should be permitted 
to have divine service during the day-time in the suburbs of 
towns, but not in the towns themselves ; and that all magis- 
trates should be directed not to interfere with them. On the 
other hand they were forbidden to come armed to their con- 
venticles, gentlemen excepted, who had that privilege every- 
where: they were commanded to evacuate the churches of which 
they had taken possession, and to restore all the ornaments 
and sacred utensils which they had despoiled : and they were 
also forbidden to oppose the collection of tithes, to levy troops, 
or to raise any contributions among themselves, except what 
might be necessary for the subsistence of their ministers. 

By this edict the expectations of the Hugonots were 

* Calvin, £pp. et Eesp., Epp. 331, 332. f Hist, des Eglises Eef., i. 667. 
X Or 1561, style of France. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



EDICT OF JANUAKY. 



497 



raised to a very high pitch. After its promulgation Peter 
Ramus, the celebrated opponent of the Aristotelian philosophy, 
overthrew at midday, in spite of its provisions, all the images 
in the chapel attached to the college of Presle, of which he 
was principal.* Even Calvin himself, who, as we have seen, 
had not been at all sanguine that anything would be obtained 
from the French court, began to entertain hopes of the 
ultimate success of his cause. The liberty of preaching 
unmolested was indeed a most important concession ; and it 
was not unnatural for him to expect that the errors of the 
old religion must speedily yield to the constant attacks of 
the Protestant ministers. Thus we find him writing to 
Sturm, in March, 1562: "If the liberty promised in this 
edict be maintained, Popedom must fall of its own accord." f 
But how short-sighted are the views even of the wisest men ! 
The very measure which promised to bring about the 
triumph of Protestantism in France proved the immediate 
cause of the civil wars which followed ; and which, after 
many years of bloodshed, resulted only in establishing the 
supremacy of the Roman Catholic faith. 

In the nicely balanced state to which parties were now 
reduced in France, the fate of religion seemed in a great 
measure to hang on the conduct of one man — the King of 
Navarre. Weak, sensual, and wholly devoid of firmness and 
consistency of character, though not deficient in personal 
courage, the vacillating conduct of Anthony alternately 
excited the hopes and fears of both parties. From a letter 
of Calvin's to Bullinger, in May, 1561, we find that even 
then Calvin placed no reliance on that prince, though 
ostensibly a convert to his principles, and though his interests 
naturally made him an opponent of the Guises. In this 
letter Calvin says : " Faithless and inconstant, the King of 
Navarre is as slothful and flexible as he is liberal of his 
promises. Though he now and then discovers some sparks 

* Maimbourg, p. 249. + MS. Bern., apitd P. Henry, iii. 523. 

K K 



498 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. xjv. 



of manly resolution, which promise to burst into a flame, 
they soon become extinct. He is no more to be trusted 
than a prevaricator in a court of law. He is, moreover, 
a slave to his pleasures ; and a certain matron (Catherine), 
skilled in such arts, has gotten him completely in her power, 
by means of one of her women. The story is known to the 
very boys. I have reprehended him for his conduct just as 
I should a private individual of my flock; and Beza has 
treated him quite as unceremoniously. But he thinks it 
a discharge in full for his conscience if he swallows our 
objurgations patiently, and without falling into a passion."* 
The lady whom Catherine employed to subdue the King 
of Navarre was Mademoiselle la Beraudiere, one of her 
maids of honour, whose knight he called himself. His atten- 
tions to this lady, after his wound at the siege of Rouen, 
are said to have been the cause of his death.f Catherine 
employed the same means of seduction with other leaders of 
both parties ; and for this purpose chose her maids of 
honour, not merely for their personal charms, but also for 
their shrewdness and address. Conde, the Duke of Guise, 
and several others were not proof against these arts : Coligny 
was almost the only one who resisted them successfully. 
Conde is said not to have abandoned one of his numerous 
mistresses, on account of his adopting the evangelical 
religion. He, like his brother Anthony, sometimes stood 
in need of admonitions from Geneva; but probably the 
more decided character of that prince, and his indispen- 
sableness to the Calvinistic cause, occasioned them to be 
administered with more reserve and gentleness. There is 
extant a joint letter of Calvin and Beza to Conde, in which 
his foible is handled very tenderly : % and indeed, Beza was 
not exactly the person to lecture on such a topic. 

* MS. Bern., apud P. Henry, iii. 490. + Lacratelle, ii. 103. 

t As in the following passage : " Nous n'estimons pas qu'il y ait du mal ou 
Dieu ne soit directement offense ; mais qu'on orra dire que vous faites l'amour 



chap, xiv.] APOSTASY OF KING ANTHONY. 



499 



It was the aim of the Triumvirate to detach the King of 
Navarre from the Hugonot party, in which they at length 
succeeded. It would be difficult to assign Anthony's real 
motives for deserting the Calvinists. We can hardly believe 
that he was allured by the baits which the Triumvirate held 
out to him; one of which was the hand and kingdom of 
Mary, Queen of Scots, the niece of the Guises. Anthony 
could not accept this proposal without divorcing his wife, 
Jeanne d'Albret; and from this step, in spite of his licen- 
tiousness, either his love or his conscience deterred him. 
Another inducement offered was, that the King of Spain 
should give him the island of Sardinia, in place of his lost 
kingdom of Navarre.* But if this was ever seriously 
proposed, it certainly never took effect. Roman Catholic 
writers assert, that he was dissatisfied with the arguments of 
the Protestant ministers at Poissy, and with the differences 
of opinion manifested by them on points of faith and doc- 
trine, f There does not seem to be any foundation for this 
assertion, or for thinking that his religious convictions, though 
never, perhaps, very strong, were actually shaken ; for in his 
last moments he appears to have given tokens of the faith 
which apparently he had abandoned. J It is true, however, 
that he made the proceedings at Poissy a pretext for joining 
the Triumvirate, and ascribed his conversion to the eloquence 
of the Cardinal of Lorraine ; § though probably his real motive 
may have been jealousy of his brother Conde, who enjoyed the 
headship of the Hugonot party, to which Anthony thought 
himself entitled by priority of birth and rank. It may be, 
too, that the prospect of the throne, to which the delicate 
health of the royal children offered him no distant chance 
of succeeding, had some influence on his conduct; as, in 

aux dames, cela est pour deroger beaucoup a votre autorite et reputation. Les 
bons en seront offenses, les malins en seront leur risee, &c." — M.S. Par., apud 
P. Henry, iii. 496. * Davila, i. 156. + Ibid. 

t Lacratelle, ii. 103. § Ibid., p. 40, 

K K 2 



500 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIK. 



[chap. XIV. 



such an event, lie might have found his religious principles 
embarrassing. 

The news of Anthony's apostasy excited the deepest in- 
dignation at Geneva. As he had been persuaded, on his 
return to the Roman Catholic Church, to make a solemn 
declaration at Rome against the Reformed faith, Calvin 
reproved him with freedom and severity in a letter, of which 
the following may serve as a specimen : " Sire, if, in case 
any poor man of lowly condition pretends to consent that the 
name of God shall be blasphemed, religion insulted, and the 
poor church trodden under foot, he is made to confess that 
the word of truth is not in his mouth ; what shall be done 
with you, sire, who are in such authority, honour, and station, 
if, flattery apart, you come to reckon with Him from whom 
you hold all ? Truly it would be cowardice in me to connive 
in silence at that particular act which hath engendered so 
much scandal among people of all conditions : I mean, sire, 
that unhappy harangue made on your part at Rome, which 
makes those good men who have any zeal for God's glory, 
and for your majesty's good name, blush, weep, groan, and 
almost burst for grief. Truly, sire, you cannot strive too 
much to incline your heart in a quite opposite direction, till 
so great a fault be expiated before God and man. Your 
enemies seem inclined, by printing such filth, to triumph in 
the odium you have incurred by it. You cannot make any 
acceptable offering to God for your absolution. And what 
would it profit, though all the world should be given to you, 
when you do homage to him who has no power but for 
evil?"* The Queen of Navarre, however, always remained 
firm in the Protestant faith. After the defection of her 
husband, whom Beza branded with the name of Julian, she 
retired into Beam, where she brought up the young prince 
her son, afterwards Henry IV., in the Reformed principles ; so 
that Calvin's influence may be said to have extended to him. 



MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 490. Ruchat, vii. 390. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



MASSACHE OF YASSY. 



501 



The publication of the edict of January, and the apostasy 
of the King of Navarre, served to bring matters to a crisis. 
Conde had a strong force at his disposal in Paris; and, 
in order to get rid of him, Anthony wrote to the Duke of 
Guise, who was at his seat at Joinville, to join him in the 
metropolis. Guise set off with two squadrons of horse, and 
followed by a numerous body of dependents. Unfortunately 
his road lay through Vassy. It was Sunday, the 1st of 
March, and a congregation of Protestants, to the number 
of 1000 or 1200, had assembled in a barn outside the town, 
as they were permitted to do by the edict, to celebrate the 
Lord's Supper. The scene that ensued has been differently 
related. Roman Catholic writers affirm that some of Guise's 
soldiers had strayed to the spot from curiosity ; that a tumult 
having ensued, Guise, attracted thither by the noise, was struck 
on the cheek by a stone flung by one of the congregation ; 
and that his followers, irritated by this insult to their chief, 
immediately fell upon the Hugonots.* But the suspicious 
fact will ever remain, of an armed body of men coming into 
sudden collision with a defenceless multitude, engaged in 
their devotions, and therefore not likely to have been the 
aggressors. A dreadful slaughter ensued. Forty-four persons 
were killed outright, and one hundred and sixteen were 
wounded, many of whom died of the injuries they received. 
During this carnage, the Cardinal of Lorraine stood outside 
the barn. When it was over, the duke brought him a 
large book which had been found, and asked him what it 
was. On the cardinal replying that it was the Bible : 
"What!" cried Guise, "the Scriptures? It is 1500 years 
since they were made ; and these books were printed only a 
year ago. Par la mort Dieu, tout n'en vaut rien /"f Guise 
sent for the mayor of Vassy, and blamed him for allowing 
the Hugonots to assemble. The mayor pleaded the edict. 
" Detestable edict ! " cried the duke, drawing his sword, " it 



Davila, i. 168. 



j* Hist, des Eglises Bef., i. 725. 



502 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



is with this that I will break it."* From that moment the 
religious wars may be said to have commenced. 

The Hugonots convened a meeting to consider of the 
conduct of the Guises, the violation of the edict, and the 
massacre of Vassy. Beza and another were deputed to 
remonstrate against these proceedings with Catherine, who 
was at that time, with the young king, at Monceaux, in 
La Brie. She received them graciously, and said she did 
not think that the Duke of Guise would persist in going to 
Paris. But the King of Navarre, who was present, flew 
into a violent rage, and charged the Hugonots with going 
armed to their conventicles. Beza replied that arms, in the 
hands of the wise, are guarantees of peace, and that the 
affair of Vassy showed how necessary they were for the 
church, unless other means were provided for its safety ; to 
which he humbly supplicated the attention of the King of 
Navarre, in whom the church, up to that time, had reposed 
so much hope. The Cardinal of Ferrara, the Pope's legate, 
here interposed, and alluded to the riot at St. Medard ; but 
Beza, who had been an eye-witness of that affair, silenced him 
by relating the real facts of it. Beza, continuing to demand 
justice against Guise, the King of Navarre declared that he 
should consider him who touched a finger of the duke's as 
committing an assault on his own body. Nothing daunted, 
however, Beza proceeded with his harangue. He represented 
that the way of justice was the way of God ; that kings 
were the debtors of their subjects, and that to demand justice 
could not possibly be an injury to anybody ; and as the King 
of Navarre had excused Guise by alleging that he could not 
restrain the fury of his people, when they saw him attacked 
with stones, Beza, after representing that the duke might 
have contented himself with informing against those who 
had done so, concluded with these words : " It belongs, 
indeed, sire, to the church of God, in whose name I speak, 



* Lacratelle, Ouerres de Rel, ii. 65. 



chap, x.v.] KEMONSTKANCES OF BEZA. 



503 



to endure blows, and not to give them. But may it please 
you also to remember, that it is an anvil that has worn out 
many a hammer."* 

In spite of this bold speech, Beza got safely back to Paris, 
but his situation there now became exceedingly critical. 
Writing to Martyr, in March, 1562, Calvin says: u Through 
the perfidy and wickedness of Julian (i. e. Anthony), Beza, 
with many others, was near being dragged to execution 
lately ; but God miraculously frustrated this wicked attempt. 
And though that apostate hath called the Guises to court, to 
try the last and most desperate measures, yet our friend Beza 
hopes that these will not only be in vain, but that the 
church will gain such strength as to prevent its enemies 
from attempting anything against it hereafter. The first 
conflicts, however, will be fearful." f Such were the hopes 
that animated the Calvinists. 

Although Catherine had written to Guise to suspend his 
march upon Paris, he nevertheless entered that city at the 
head of his troops, on the 20th of March, accompanied 
by the constable, and the Marshal St. Andre. The Parisian 
populace, which had never regarded the Protestants with 
favour, received him with shouts of Vive Guise! and with 
every demonstration of joy. On the same afternoon Conde 
had gone to a house called Jerusalem, in the Faubourg 
St. Jaques, to hear a Hugonot sermon, and in returning 
through the city, followed by 700 or 800 horse, fell in with 
Guise and his troops. A collision was expected, but the two 
chiefs saluted one another, and passed on their way.f At 
this critical juncture, Conde* committed two irretrievable 
errors. The first of these was his evacuation of Paris, by which 
he left that important place in the possession of his enemies. 
The second was, that, instead of seizing the persons of the 

* Hist, des Eglises R£f., ii, 3. For the original edition of which work the 
words just cited suggested a frontispiece, 

f MS. Par., apud P. Henry, iii. 526. J Hist, des Eglises lief., ii. 4. 



504 



LIFE OF JOHN CAL YIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



king and of the queen-mother, as he might have done, he 
stopped short at Meaux, and contented himself with sending 
a message to Catherine, to know her pleasure. Guise's 
conduct was more stirring and decisive. No sooner had 
Conde quitted Paris, than he posted guards at all the gates, 
and began to levy troops in the city. With the concurrence 
of the King of Navarre, he forced Catherine and the young 
king to go to Melun, where they were lodged in the castle, 
which for a century had been used only as a prison; but 
after a short time they were brought to Paris. The constable 
secured the fidelity of that city, by deposing his son, Marshal 
Montmorency, from the governorship, which he entrusted 
to Cardinal Bourbon. For a feAV days after Guise's occu- 
pation of Paris, the Protestant worship was not entirely 
suppressed. But on the 5th of April the constable, at the 
head of 200 men, and followed by the mob, proceeded to the 
meeting-house called Jerusalem, near the Porte St. Jaques, 
where he vented his fury by overthrowing the pulpit, and 
burning the benches ; and in the afternoon repeated the 
same conduct at a house outside the Porte St. Antoine. 
These exploits, which gained him the nick-name of " Captain 
Brule-Bancs/ 3 were the signal for all sorts of license on the 
part of the populace, who pillaged and murdered the unfor- 
tunate Hugonots without mercy.* 

Meanwhile Conde had occupied Orleans. A civil war 
was now inevitable, and both parties prepared for it by 
manifestoes and declarations. On the 7th of April, Conde 
addressed letters to the different Hugonot congregations, 
requiring contributions of men and money; and on the 
following day published a proclamation, in which he notified 
that his only motive in taking up arms was to uphold the 
authority of the king and of his edicts, and to restore him to 
liberty. Many of the chief towns of France declared for 
the Hugonots, as Rouen, Dieppe, Havre de Grace, Angers, 



* Hist, des Eglises Ref., ii. 12. 



CHAP. XXV.] 



BATTLE OF DREUX. 



505 



Poitiers, Tours, Blois, and others ; and among them the 
important city of Lyons ; an event which the preaching of 
Viret had been very instrumental in producing.* Conde 
wrote to the Genevese to request their prayers for the success 
of his cause ; and not only were these constantly offered up 
during the continuance of the war, but Conde' s camp was 
plentifully supplied with ministers from Geneva. 

Beza was the soul of the Calvinistic party. He caused 
a synod to assemble at Orleans on the 27th of April, which 
was attended by Conde, Coligny, and other leaders of the 
Hugonots. For this meeting Calvin himself drew up a 
confession of faith, to be presented, in the name of the 
French Reformed churches, to Charles V., who was at that 
time holding a diet at Frankfort. At this synod appeared 
Calvin's old opponent Bolsec, who had once more taken it 
into his head to reconcile himself with the Reformed party ; 
but finding matters not quite so tranquil as he expected, he 
again gave them the slip.f 

An attempt was made to avert the impending war by an 
interview between the queen-mother and Conde, in which 
the latter insisted that the edict of January should be main- 
tained, and that Guise, the constable, and the Marshal 
St. Andre, should retire to their homes : he, on his part, 
undertaking to do the like. J But this and other attempts 
proved abortive. On the 27th of June, Conde returned to the 
Hugonot camp, and prepared for the approaching struggle. 

It does not belong to this subject to detail the campaign 
that ensued. Three incidents chiefly served to bring it to 
a close : the death of the King of Navarre from a wound 
received at the siege of Rouen ; the overthrow and capture 
of Conde in the battle of Dreux, fought on the 19th of 
December, 1562 ; and shortly afterwards, the assassination of 
the Duke of Guise by Poltrot. 

On the eve of the battle of Dreux, Beza addressed and 

* P. Henry, iii. 527. f Hist, des Eglises Eef., ii. 34. + Ibid., ii. 77. 



506 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



encouraged the soldiery; and during the actual conflict 
performed in the first ranks all the functions of an ensign.* 
The battle was obstinately contested for seven hours. The 
Marshal St. Andre was slain ; and Conde and Montmorency, 
the generals of either side, taken prisoners. Misery, it is 
said, makes us acquainted with strange bed-fellows. Conde, 
after his capture, was led to the quarters of the Duke of 
Guise, in a village near the field of battle; and so wretched 
was the accommodation, that these two capital enemies not 
only dined at the same table, but shared the same bed : an 
incident which reminds us that the days of chivalry were 
not yet wholly departed. Though the overthrow of the 
Hugonots was complete, Coligny managed to save the 
remnant of the army by a well-conducted retreat upon Lyons. 

At the beginning of the following year Guise laid siege to 
Orleans, into which town Andelot had thrown himself, and 
which the admiral was marching to relieve. The war might 
have been protracted for some time longer, when an unlooked 
for event removed the only obstacle to a peace. Guise, whom 
the victory of Dreux had placed in a position to dictate to 
the court, and who had extorted from Catherine the post 
of commandant -general of the king^s armies, fell by the 
hands of an assassin on the 24th of February, 1563. He 
had been giving orders for an assault on the bridge of 
Orleans, to be made on the following day, and was returning 
to his quarters unarmed, when he was shot in the back by 
Poltrot, a gentleman of Angoumois.f He lingered for a few 
days without hope of recovery : the wound was deep, and the 
balls poisoned. On his death-bed Guise displayed all the 
qualities of a hero. He showed much anxiety to clear 
himself from the charge of having authorised the massacre 
at Yassy ; and his last words were employed in recommending 
peace. 

* Schlosser, p. 169. Calvin to Bullinger, Jan. 16th, 1563, MS. Gen., apud 
P. Henry, iii. 533. f Davila, i. 259. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



ASSASSINATION OF GUISE. 



507 



After the murder, Poltrot, in the agitation natural to a 
guilty conscience, lost his way ; and after roaming about all 
night, in the morning fell in with some of Guise's troops, by 
whom he was captured. On being put to the torture, the 
assassin confessed his guilt ; and named several of the 
Hugonot party, particularly Coligny and Beza, by whom he 
affirmed that he had been incited to commit the crime. That 
the murder of Guise had been long contemplated by some of 
the Calvinists appears from a letter of Calvin's to the 
Duchess of Ferrara ; in which he says that, even before the 
war broke out, some resolute persons had determined on 
taking the duke's life, and had been diverted from their project 
only by his exhortations.* Calvin himself was in the habit 
of praying for him; but it was after a singular fashion. 
"And for myself/' says he, in the letter just referred to, 
" though I have always besought God to have mercy on him, 
yet at the same time I have frequently desired that the Lord 
would lay his hand upon him and deliver his church from 
him, if it was not his will to convert him."+ In his exami- 
nation Poltrot deposed that Beza, and another minister, had 
asked him if he was willing to take up his cross, as the Saviour 
had done for us ; and told him that he would be the happiest 
man in the world if he would carry out the enterprise which 
the admiral had mentioned to him : for that he would deliver 
the world of a tyrant, and gain paradise by the deed. Beza 
denied rather happily that he could have used such words : 
saying that he was not so ill instructed in Scripture as to 
misapply it in the way imputed to him ; and still less to say 
that men gain paradise by their works. J He admits, however, 
having desired the death of Guise, like Calvin; and it 
appears that, when Orleans was closely pressed by the duke, 

* Ruchat, vii. 410. 

f " Et de moy, combien que j'ay toujours prie Dieu de luy faire merci, si est- 
ce que j'ay souvent desire que Dieu mit la main sur luy, pour en delivrer son 
e'glise, s'il ne le vouloit convertir." — Ibid. 

X Hist, des Eglises Re/., ii. 299. 



508 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



Beza said, in one of his sermons, that he who should kill him 
in combat would perform an heroic action.* Considering 
the many fanatical spirits that were then abroad, it may be 
left to casuists to decide how far such indirect hints differed 
from open exhortations to murder. At all events it is certain 
that the Calvinists openly rejoiced in the act, as a salutary and 
sacred one. They compared Poltrot to Judith ; and Coligny 
offered up a solemn thanksgiving for Guise's death, which he 
scrupled not to avow that he regarded as one of the greatest 
blessings to the kingdom, to the church of God, and 
particularly to himself, and to his family.f Such conduct 
and such avowals are but too striking instances of the 
rancour proverbially accompanying religious animosity ; and 
they inspire still deeper feelings of horror and disgust, when 
we find them justified, in cold blood, by such a writer as 
Basnage from the example of the Prophets and early 
Christians .J The conduct of the rough and unlettered Guise 
himself on a similar occasion, according to an anecdote related 
of him by Montaigne on the authority of Amyot, presents us 
with an agreeable contrast. During the siege of Rouen a 
man was brought to him who had attempted his assassination. 
When Guise asked him his motives for the attempt, the man 
replied that he had been told it would be a work of piety. 
"I will show you, then," cried the duke, " how much gentler 
my religion is than yours. Yours prompts you to kill me 
without a hearing : mine commands me to pardon you, 
convicted as you are of having sought to slay me without a 
cause." § 

But whatever share the Calvinists may have had in the assas- 
sination of Guise— -and we have seen that they at all events 

* Schlosser, p. 170. f Hist, des Eglises Ref., ii. 309. 

X " S'il (Beza) prioit afin que ce prince se convertit, ou que le royaume 
en fut delivre, il avoit pour ses garans, les prophetes, les premiers Chretiens, 
et les ames des martyrs, qui sous l'autel de Dieu demandent : 4 Quand sera-ce 
que tu vengeras notre sang de la main de ceux qui l'ont repandur" — Hist, de 
la Religion des Eglises Ref. } ii. 200. § See Lacratelle, ii. 107. 



CHAP. XIV.] 



PEACE OF OKLEANS. 



509 



desired it, and rejoiced at it— the act was in reality as 
impolitic, and as injurious to their cause, as it was detestable 
in itself. By his death Catherine was delivered from a power 
she had always dreaded, and from the necessity of courting 
the opposite party in order to counterbalance it. She now 
sought to conciliate her prisoner Conde, who, weary of his 
long confinement, and eager to partake in the pleasures of the 
court, was not backward in meeting her advances. It is said 
that she employed Baudouin, the hated opponent of Calvin 
and Beza, to preach indifferentism to him;* but Conde' s 
ambition was probably a stronger incentive to the conduct 
he adopted than the lectures of Baudouin. The death of 
his brother and of the Duke of Guise opened out to him a 
fair prospect of placing himself at the head of affairs ; and in 
the absence of the admiral, and of Beza, Conde concluded a 
peace, in which the interests of the Hugonots were almost 
entirely neglected. At first, indeed, he wished to make the 
edict of January the basis of the treaty ; but the constable, 
with whom he negotiated it, at once rejected the proposition.f 
The peace was signed at Orleans on the 12th of March, 
1563 ; and on the 19th of the same month, appeared the 
edict of Amboise, regulating the exercise of religion among 
the Hugonots. The edict of January had allowed them to 
assemble for worship in any part of the kingdom, provided 
it was outside of towns; the present one restricted that 
privilege to those towns they held possession of on the 7th 
of March. It likewise placed restrictions on the exercise 
of their religion in rural districts ; though, by way of com- 
pensation, a town was appointed in every bailiwick depending 
immediately on the parliaments, outside of which they were 
allowed to hold their conventicles. J 

Coligny arrived at Orleans on the 23rd of March, after the 
peace had been concluded. When informed of its provisions, 



* P. Henry, iii. 535. f Hist, des Eglises Mf., ii. 278. 

% The edict will be found, Ibid., p. 283. 



510 



LIFE OP JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. XIV. 



he expressed much displeasure, and pointed out, that, at the 
beginning of the war, the Triumvirate had offered to adopt 
the edict of January, provided that Paris were excepted from 
its operation. He affirmed that more churches had been 
ruined by this single stroke of the pen, than could have been 
overthrown in ten years by force of arms.* But the matter 
was now past remedying. 

The peace of Orleans put an end to the first civil war, and 
Calvin did not live to see the second. Beza now returned to 
Geneva, where his presence was much required, as the ill 
state of Calvin's health prevented him from effectively 
discharging the extra duties which had devolved upon 
him.f It appears from an entry in the Registers of Geneva, 
on the 7th of May, 1563, that Beza received the public 
thanks of the heads of the Calvinist party in France, for his 
services in that country. J 

* Hist, des Eylises Bef., ii. 335. f Schlosser, p. 176. J P. Henry, iii. 537. 



chap, xv.] CONTROVERSY WITH BAUDOUIN. 



511 



CHAPTER XV. 

Controversy with Baudouin — Tract against De Saconay — Answer to Hesshus— 
Calvin's last illness — Interview with the council — Exhortation to the 
ministers — His death — Will — Beza's character of Calvin — Another 
estimate — His literary merits — Conclusion. 

The two or three last years of Calvin's life were marked 
by those theological controversies which had characterised 
his literary career from its beginning. In the preceding 
chapter, there was occasion to mention the name of Baudouin 
(Balduinus) as one of his opponents. The history of Calvin's 
connexion and dispute with that person was as follows : 

After the death of his wife, Calvin's house became the 
resort of several young men, to whom he was in the habit of 
dictating his works and letters. Among these was Francois 
Baudouin, a native of Arras, in whom Calvin seems to have 
taken a peculiar interest. He asked him to his table, 
interested himself in his education, and admitted him to his 
library, where Baudouin had free access to all Calvin's books 
and papers. After talking of a journey to France, Baudouin 
suddenly disappeared from Geneva, and with him some of 
Calvin's papers, which he must have selected, in order to use 
them in the attack which he seems to have been already 
meditating. They consisted of letters from Bucer to Calvin, 
in which the latter was blamed in no measured terms.* 

* P. Henry, hi. 550. Baudouin affirmed that in one of these letters Bucer 
had said that Calvin knew no medium in his love or hatred. But this seems 
to have been an invention of Baudouin's, though Bucer undoubtedly reproached 
Calvin with his morosity. — See Calvin, Eesponsio, &c, Opera, viii., pp. 315, B., 
and 318, A., Amst. ed. 



512 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYHST. 



[chap. XV. 



In France, Baudouin, as already related, ingratiated himself 
with King Anthony ; and it was by the command of that 
prince that he went into Germany, in order to consult with 
Cassander. The result was his presenting, at the conference 
of Poissy, Cassander's project for a union. This tract was 
printed at Basle, and Calvin immediately suspected that it 
was the production of Baudouin himself. In a letter to 
Beza at Poissy, dated on the 10th of September, 1561, Calvin 
says : " Snares are laid for you to set aside the discussion of 
the business in hand, and throw all into confusion. It is for 
this purpose that little book was published at Basle, of which 
I suspect, nay, am almost certain, that Baudouin is the 
author. I should like to answer the scoundrel as he deserves; 
but I am overwhelmed with my private correspondence, and 
the little alacrity that remained to me, is growing cold and 
feeble. Yet I will do what I can."* The result of this resolu- 
tion was, that before the close of the year Calvin published his 
" Answer to a certain Trimming Mediator ; "f a severe and 
caustic attack upon Baudouin, who, though he was not named 
in the book, was clearly pointed out as Calvin's former guest 
and assistant, and characterised as a cheat. Baudouin 
defended himself in the appendix to a work entitled 
" A Commentary on the Laws respecting Libel and Calum- 
niators;" of which he now gave a new edition, and in which 
Calvin was loaded with abuse. To this, Calvin replied very 
bitterly in his " Answer to the Reproaches of Baudouin," % 
though it must be allowed that on this occasion such a tone 
was more than ordinarily justified by the conduct of his 
opponent. Yet he was himself perfectly aware that he had 
exceeded the bounds of moderation, and in a letter to Beza 
remarks : " Weariness makes me repent of the labour I have 
undertaken, and in reading my book you will perceive that 

* Ep. 313. 

f Calvini Eesponsio ad versipellem quemdam Mediatorem ; and also in 
French, Response a un certain Moyenneur ruse. 

t Joliannis Calvini Eesponsio ad Balduini Convicia, Geneva, 1562. 



chap, xv.] CONTROVERSY WITH BAUDOUIN. 5] 3 

I have been exacerbated by the indignities offered me. If 
I did not already compassionate your multifarious occupations, 
I should like to see the beast depicted by your pencil also." * 
Baudouin, among other things, had reproached Calvin with 
the death of Servetus, to which he replies : " Perhaps Castellio 
obtained from him, as a pledge of friendship, that he should 
patronise the cause of Servetus. That man, indeed, suffered 
the penalty due to his heresies ; but was it by my will ? 
Certainly his arrogance destroyed him not less than his 
impiety. And what crime was it of mine if our council, at 
my exhortation, indeed, but in conformity with the opinion of 
several churches, took vengeance on his execrable blasphemies ? 
Let Baudouin abuse me as long as he will, provided that, by 
the judgment of Melancthon, posterity owe me a debt of 
gratitude for having purged the church of so pernicious a 
monster. "f And a little further on, in answer to Baudo urn's 
taunts, Calvin thus speaks of his way of life : " I will not 
enumerate the pleasures, conveniences, and riches I have 
renounced for Christ. I will only say that, had I the dis- 
position of Baudouin, it would not have been very difficult 
for me to procure those things, which he has always sought 
in vain, and which he now but too greedily gloats upon. 
But let that pass. Content with my humble fortune, my 
attention to frugality has prevented me from being a burthen 
to anybody. I remain tranquil in my station; and have 
even given up a part of the moderate salary assigned to me, 
instead of asking for any increase. I devote all my care, 
labour, and study, not only to the service of this church, to 
which I am peculiarly bound, but to the assistance of all the 
churches by every means in my power. I so discharge my 
office of a teacher, that no ambition may appear in my extreme 
faithfulness and diligence. I devour numerous griefs, and 
endure the rudeness of many ; but my liberty is uncontrolled 
by the power of any man. I do not indulge the great by 

* MS. Par., apud P. Henry, iii. 559. f Hesponsio, &c, p. 319, B. 

L L 



514 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIST. 



[chap. XV. 



flattery ; I fear not to give offence ; no prosperity has hitherto 
inflated me ; whilst I have intrepidly borne the many severe 
storms by which I have been tossed, till by the singular mercy 
of God I emerged from them. I live affably with my equals, 
and endeavour faithfully to preserve my friendships."* 

Such was the picture which Calvin drew of his own life, many 
of the particulars of which cannot be controverted ; though 
it might, perhaps, have displayed better taste to have left them 
to be recounted by another. Baudouin rejoined : but Calvin 
had grown weary of the contest, and Beza now continued it 
for him, as Calvin had requested in the letter before cited. 
Beza's tract appeared at Geneva in 1563, under the title of 
" The Answer of Th. Beza to the Book of Fr. Baudouin, 
the Ecebolian Apostate." Beza gave him this name after 
Ecebolius, the ancient vicar of Bray, who changed his faith 
with every new emperor : no inappropriate appellation if 
indeed Baudouin, as is said, altered his religion no fewer 
than seven times, f This versatility, however, does not seem 
to have prejudiced him in the profession of the law. He 
possessed great talent as a jurisconsult, and taught with 
much applause at Bourges, Strasburgh, Heidelberg, and 
Douay. Though Calvin prefixed a letter to Beza's Reply, in 
which he declared that he would take no further part in the 
dispute, yet Baudouin was determined to have the last word 
and published a rejoinder. 

About the same time Calvin wrote his " Gratulation to the 
Venerable Priest Dom. Gabriel de Saconay, Precentor of 
Lyons." De Saconay had published a new edition of a part 
of Henry VIII/s work against Luther on the " Seven Sacra- 
ments," which he accompanied with a vain and boastful 
preface, in which he reflected upon the nocturnal meetings 
of the Hugonots for prayer, and also reproached Beza with 
his want of chastity. According to Calvin's account, the 
conduct of De Saconay himself by no means afforded a 



Responsio, &c, Opera, viii. 321, A. 



f See Bayle, art. Baudouin. 



CHAP. XV.] 



TEACT AGAINST DE SACONAY. 



515 



pattern of that virtue ; and the way in which Calvin exposes 
his amorous foibles shows that he was far from deficient in 
wit and humour when he chose to exert them. A tone of 
levity pervades the piece which puts it almost on a level 
with those facetiae of Poggio and others, with which it had 
been forbidden to defile the ears of the faithful of Geneva. 
Calvin's jokes, however, are intermixed with some grim 
reproofs; and the object of his chastisement is plainly told 
that, had he been one of his flock, his vices would long 
ago have rendered his carcase food for the crows.* 

A little before these tracts, which have been mentioned 
first as connected with the subject of the preceding chapter, 
Calvin had been again plunged into a controversy with the 
Lutheran zealots, on the subject of the eucharist. After his 
controversy with Westphal, the Saxon clergy, of the faction 
of Flaccius Illyricus, had even gone so far as to talk of 
excommunicating Calvin. f In 1559, this party procured 
from John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, a condemnation 
of the Zwinglian and Calvinistic doctrine respecting the 
Lord's Supper, to which, in October of that year, Melancthon 
published an answer, in which he showed that the Calvinistic 
theory could be refuted neither from Scripture, nor from the 
most ancient Fathers ; but, on the other hand, with the 
timidity which always characterised him, he did not declare 
himself against the Lutheran view, but let both remain, as 
if they were not repugnant. J Melancthon's death, which 
took place on the 19th of April, 1560, gave a new stimulus 
to the Flaccian, or bigoted Lutheran party, and especially 
to those of Jena. Shortly after that event they addressed 
a petition to John Frederick, in which they requested him to 
convoke a synod for the condemnation of the adiaphorists, 
the synergists, the Osiandrists, and sacramentaries. They 
demanded that none should be admitted to this synod who 

* Gratulatio, &c, Opera, viii. 321, B., Amst. ed. 
f Calvin to Farel, MS. Gen., apud P. Henry, iii. 334. $ Ibid., p. 337, note. 

L L % 



516 LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. [chap. xv. 

did not belong to the Confession of Augsburg, and that the 
Zwinglians should not only be excluded from it, but even 
anathematised.* Meanwhile Calvin was attacked by several 
of these, as he was wont to call them, apes of Luther. In 
his tract against Tileman Hesshus, he mentions, besides that 
person, Staphylus and Nicholas Grallus among his assailants. 
But of these the most violent, as well as the most able, was 
Hesshus, a man of a turbulent character, who is said to 
have been deposed no fewer than seven times from different 
offices that he held.f Calvin doubted for some time 
whether he should answer Hesshus' s book, which appeared 
in 1560, and of which he seems to have got a copy from 
Bullinger. Writing to Caspar Olevianus, in November of 
that year, Calvin says : " I have begun, not without some 
disgust, to run over Tileman's book, which Bullinger sent to 
me. The loquacity of that brawler is too absurd to excite my 
anger, and I have not yet decided whether I shall answer 
him. I am weary of so many pamphlets, and shall certainly 
not think his follies worthy of many days' labour. But 
I have composed a brief analysis of this controversy, which 
will, perhaps, be shortly published." J 

Calvin, however, answered Hesshus, and with his usual 
virulence, which neither age nor experience had moderated. 
At the beginning of his tract Calvin makes the following 
address to Melancthon : " O, Philip Melancthon ! for it is 
to thee I appeal, who now livest with Christ in the bosom of 
God, where thou waitest for us till we be gathered with thee 
to a holy rest. A hundred times hast thou said, when, 
wearied with thy labours and oppressed by thy troubles, 
thou reposedst thy head familiarly on my breast, ' Would 
that I could die in this bosom ! ' Since then I have a 
thousand times wished that it had happened to us to be 



* Ruchat, vi. 336. f P. Henry, iii. 339. 

$ Ep. 302. It seems to me doubtful whether Calvin had anything to do with 
Ep. 304, which turns on the same subject. 



CHAP. XV.J 



ANSWER TO HESSHUS. 



517 



together ; for certainly thou wouldst thus have had more 
courage for the contest, and been stronger to despise envy, 
and to count as nothing all false accusations. In this 
manner, too, the wickedness of many would have been 
restrained, who, from thy softness, as they called it, gathered 
audacity for their attacks."* 

In some of his arguments in this tract, Calvin descends to 
a species of ribaldry, which, on so sacred a subject, strikes 
a modern reader as highly unbecoming. The following is 
an instance : " All these things we clearly testify, whilst 
Hesshus urges nothing but his mad dream, that the body 
of Christ is partaken of by the unfaithful, and yet hath 
no vivifying power ! But if he thinks that there is no 
other method but philosophy, let him learn from a short 
syllogism ; 

" Whosoever observes not the analogy between the sign 
and the thing signified, is an unclean animal, or head of neat 
cattle. 

u He who asserts that the bread is truly and properly the 
body of Christ, destroys the analogy between the sign and 
the thing signified. 

" Wherefore, he who asserts that the bread is properly the 
body, is an unclean animal. 

"And from this syllogism let him learn, even if there be no 
philosophy in the world, that still he is an impure beast l"f 

In this work, Calvin thus expresses his doctrine respecting 
participation in the body of Christ. " Hesshus objects — If 
the body of Christ is in heaven, it is not therefore in the 
supper, but only a symbol. As if, forsooth, the supper were 
not, to the faithful worshippers of God, a heavenly action, 
or, as it were, a vehicle by which they may overpass the 
boundaries of the world. But what is this to Hesshus ? 
who not only remains on earth, but drives his nose as far as 
he can into the mud." J 



* Opera, viii. 724, A. 



+ Hid., p. 728, A. 



% Ibid., p. 72&, B. 



518 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



We find, from a passage in this book, that Calvin's followers 
had now obtained the name of Calvinists. * In another place, 
Calvin piques himself on the number of the martyrs who had 
already fallen in defence of his principles : " Because," he 
says, " Hesshus sees no method of escape, he breaks out into 
abuse, and makes me an Epicurean. What sort of disciples 
he dismisses from his school, there is no need to mention. 
Surely it is not from the sty of Epicurus that those men come 
forth who fearlessly offer up their lives as a sacrifice, in order 
that they may sanction with their very blood the institution 
of the holy supper. Six hundred martyrs will stand before 
God as advocates in the defence of my doctrine ; and for the 
same cause three hundred thousand men are now venturing 
their lives." f 

Calvin concludes by remarking, that he shall hand over his 
opponent to Beza for the finishing stroke. That faithful 
disciple accordingly published two dialogues in the course 
of this year, viz., " Kpeco<£ayia, or the Cyclops;" and ""Ovos 
cryXXoyiCofxevos, or the Sophist;" the chief design of which 
was to purge Calvin from the calumnies with which Hesshus 
had assailed him. 

The "Admonition to the Polish Brethren," published in 
1563, which has been already mentioned, was among the last 
of Calvin's works. His life was now drawing to a close. He 
never thoroughly recovered from the quartan ague with 
which he had been attacked in 1558 ; and from that period 
his letters make constant mention of his bad state of health. 
Writing to Beza in October, 1561, he describes himself as 
suffering from a continual cholic, accompanied with vomitings, 
sleeplessness, loss of appetite, and so great a dryness of the 
throat and palate, as made it difficult for him to dictate 
even a few words. J These gave way only to be succeeded 
by a head-ache, for which Calvin's remedy was fasting. We 
learn, on the authority of Beza, that for more than ten years 

* Opera, viii. 731, B„, &c» f Ibid., p. 742, B. J Ep. 323. 



CHAP. XV.] 



HIS LAST ILLNESS. 



539 



he took but one meal a day; and occasionally he would 
altogether abstain from food for the space of six-and-thirty 
hours.* Though, in addition to these sufferings, he was, 
towards the close of 1561, tormented by the gout, so that 
he could not walk without support, yet he did not intermit 
his sermons, but was carried to church in his chair, f His 
disorders went on increasing in severity, till, in the spring of 
1564, they plainly threatened a fatal termination. His letter 
to the physicians of Montpellier, on the 8th of February in 
that year, contains a catalogue of some of the worst ills which 
can afflict humanity. J In the summer of 1563, he had been 
attacked with nephritis. He went into the country for a 
cure, but was obliged to be carried on a couch, as he could 
not sit on horseback. On his return to Geneva he got out 
to walk, but had scarcely crept a mile, when weakness in the 
loins compelled him to desist. This was shortly afterwards 
followed by the discharge of a stone from the bladder. In 
the same letter he complains of indigestion and spitting of 
blood. 

Amid this complication of painful disorders, Calvin's 
literary industry did not forsake him. In a letter to 
Fretius, dated on the 30th of November, 1563, he describes 
himself as engaged in translating his " Commentary on the 
Pentateuch" into French ; and as having also begun a 
commentary on Joshua, in which he had proceeded as far as 
the third chapter. § This work he finished on his death-bed. 

On the 6th of February, 1564, Calvin preached his last 
sermon. Although an asthma now prevented him from 
delivering any continued discourse, he was still carried occa- 
sionally to church, and would now and then address a few 
words to the congregation ; but after March he was obliged 
to abstain even from this. || All these ills he is represented 

* Beza, Vita Calv., anno 1564, from which the following account of 
Calvin's last days is chiefly taken. t Epp. 324, 325. 

+ Ep. 343, § Ep. 342. || Beza, Vita Calv., anno 1564. 



520 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



as sustaining with the greatest fortitude and resignation. 
No complaints escaped his lips, except that sometimes, 
raising his eyes to heaven, he would exclaim : " How long, 

0 Lord ! " He followed the prescriptions of his physicians 
most implicitly ; but he would not attend to any admonitions 
that he should relinquish his labours. When Beza attempted 
to persuade him to give up dictating, or, at all events, 
writing, he replied : " What ! would you have the Lord find 
me idle ? " The members of the consistory visited him on 
the 1 0th of March, and found him dressed, and sitting at a 
little table, on which he was accustomed to write. When 
Calvin perceived them, he leaned his head on one of his 
hands, as he was accustomed to do when meditating; and 
after a short silence, with a broken voice, but with a cheerful 
countenance, he said : " I thank you most heartily, my 
dearest brethren, for your care of me, and I hope that in 
a fortnight — which was the usual time for consistorial 
censures — I shall be among you for the last time. For 

1 think about that time the Lord will reveal his will con- 
cerning me, and will take me to himself." He accordingly 
appeared in the consistory on the 24th of March ; and after 
the sitting was over, observed, that he thought the Lord 
had granted him some delay. He then took up a French 
New Testament, and consulted those present on some 
passages. On the following day he felt the worse for this 
exertion. Nevertheless, on the 27th of March, he caused 
himself to be carried to the council-house, and, with the 
support of two friends, walked into the hall, where a new 
rector of the schools was to be presented to the council. 
Here, having bared his head, he returned thanks for the 
favours which he had received at the hands of the council, 
and that especially, in this his last illness, they had shown 
him such marked attention. On the 10th of March, the 
council had ordered every one to pray for Calvin's restora- 
tion; and on the 13th of the same month, sent him 



CH4P. XT.] 



INTERVIEW WITH THE COUNCIL. 



521 



25 crowns through his brother; which, however, Calvin 
refused to accept : alleging that as he was not in a condition 
to discharge his duties, he made it a point of conscience not 
to receive wages. * On taking leave of the council, he 
observed : " I feel this is the last time that I shall appear in 
this place ; " and after pronouncing these few words with a 
faltering accent, bade farewell to all the members, who were 
overcome with grief. On the 2nd of April, being Easter day, 
he was carried to church; where he remained during the 
sermon, and afterwards received the sacrament from the 
hands of Beza. He even joined in the hymn; and though 
his voice was tremulous, his countenance, already touched 
by the hand of death, gave manifest tokens of joy and 
satisfaction. On the 25th of April he made his last will ; 
after which he sent to the syndics and council to intimate 
that he was desirous of once more addressing them in the 
council-house before he died, and hoped that he should be 
well enough to be carried thither on the morrow. Here- 
upon the council replied, that they would come to him 
instead ; and accordingly repaired to his house on the 
26th of April, f 

After mutual salutations, and apologies on the part of 
Calvin to the council, for giving them the trouble of coming 
to his house, he observed that he had long desired this inter- 
view, but had put it off till the hour of his departure from 
the world became more apparent. "I thank your excel- 
lencies most heartily," he continued, " for the honours with 
which you have loaded me, and which I have done little 
to deserve, as well as for your having often borne with my 
infirmities so patiently ; which I have always considered the 

* See Registers. Grenus, Fragmens Biographiques. 
+ Scott remarks (Qont. of Milner, iii. 479, note) that modei-n authors, feeling 
at a loss how to accommodate the whole senate, consisting of sixty or seventy 
persons, in a room of Calvin's house, have restricted the attendance to that of 
the four syndics. But we have seen that the little or ordinary council consisted 
of only twenty-five members. 



522 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



greatest proof of your singular good-will towards me. 
Although in the discharge of my office I have had to endure 
many contests, and to sustain all kinds of attacks — for such 
must be the fate of the best of men — yet I know and 
acknowledge, that it has not been through any fault of 
yours. And I earnestly entreat you that, if at any time 
I have failed in my duty, you will have regard to my will 
rather than to my power. For I can truly declare, that 
I have been a sincere well-wisher to your state ; and though 
I may not have always succeeded in discharging all that my 
duty required of me, yet, as far as lay in my power, I have 
ever studied the public good. At the same time, I should 
hardly escape the charge of dissimulation, did I not express 
my conviction that the Lord hath been pleased sometimes to 
employ my services with effect. Still I must again and again 
beg of you to excuse me, that either in my public or private 
capacity I have performed so little of what I ought to have 
done. I have also to acknowledge myself much indebted to 
you for the patience with which you have borne my vehe- 
mence, and which has sometimes, I confess it, been immo- 
derate ; which sins of mine are, I trust, also pardoned by God. 
With regard to the doctrine which you have heard from 
my lips, I do here affirm, that I have taught the word of God 
with which I was intrusted, not vaguely and rashly, but 
purely and sincerely : whose anger would otherwise, I know, 
as surely impend over my head at this moment, as I am 
confident that my labours in teaching have not been dis- 
pleasing to him. And this I am the more inclined to testify 
before God and you, because I doubt not that Satan, as is 
his custom, will stir up wicked, light, and giddy men, to 
corrupt the pure doctrine which you have heard from me." 

Then, after adverting to the great benefits which they 
had received at the hands of God, he continued : "I am the 
best judge from how many and what exceeding great dangers 
the hand of an almighty and merciful God hath delivered 



chap, xv.] INTERVIEW WITH THE COUNCIL. 523 



you. Consider the station which you now hold, and whether 
your affairs be prosperous or adverse, let it be ever before 
your eyes that it is he alone who strengthens cities and states, 
and who in that respect demands the worship of mankind. 
Bear in mind that David, amid all his greatness, testifies to 
us that he fell when he thought himself most secure, and 
indeed never to rise again, had not God, with wonderful 
goodness, stretched forth his hand to him. What, then, 
shall become of us puny men, when he fell who was so 
powerful and so strong ? Truly, great humility is needful 
for you, that you may walk carefully, reverencing God, and 
trusting to his safeguard alone, in the confident hope that 
with his help you will stand firm, as indeed you have often 
experienced, though your safety and preservation should 
depend as it were upon a single thread. If, then, your affairs 
be prosperous, be not puffed up like the profane, but rather 
give thanks to God with an humble heart ; if, on the con- 
trary, adversity should threaten you, and even destruction 
surround you on every side, yet still put your trust in him 
who is able to raise even the dead ; yea, rather think that 
God thus awakens you, in order that you may learn more 
and more to look towards him alone. And if you wish this 
republic to remain stable, look again and again that the 
sacred judgment-seat on which he hath placed you be not 
defiled. For he alone is the great God, King of kings, 
and Lord of lords ; who will honour them who honour him, 
and cast down his contemners into the dust. Worship him, 
therefore, according to his precepts, and ponder these things 
ever more and more ; for we are always far enough from 
performing what our duty requires. I know your minds 
and characters, and that you all stand in need of exhortation. 
Even among those who excel, there is none in whom much is 
not wanting. Let every one, then, examine himself, and 
ask the Lord for those things in which he finds himself 
deficient. We see what vices reign in most of the councils 



524 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



of the world. Some are lukewarm, and neglect the public 
good to follow their own interests ; some indulge their 
private passions ; some use not the excellent gifts with which 
God hath endowed them, in a fitting manner; others are 
ostentatious, and with a certain confidence, require that the 
rest should conform to their opinions. I exhort the aged 
not to envy younger men, whom they may see that the Lord 
hath adorned with gifts ; and the young that they be modest, 
and free from all elation. Let not one interfere with another. 
Avoid enmities, and all those private grudges and animosities 
which have averted many from the true course in governing 
a state. These things you will avoid, if each of you confine 
himself to his own province, and faithfully administer that 
department of the government with which he is intrusted. 
In deciding civil causes, let nothing, I beseech you, be done 
out of private favour or enmity. Let none pervert justice 
by covert practices, nor hinder the due course of law by 
partiality : in a word, let none depart from what is just and 
right. Should any sinister affection tempt any of you, let him 
constantly resist it, and looking up to Him who placed him 
on the bench, pray for his Holy Spirit. I have now done, 
except that I must again request your pardon for my infir- 
mities, which I here confess and acknowledge, before God 
and his angels, as well as before your excellencies." 

Such, according to Beza, was the speech which Calvin 
addressed to the members of the council on this occasion. 
Some allowances should, perhaps, be made for a little 
rhetorical exaggeration on the part of that writer ; for it is 
hardly probable that Calvin, who now found it painful to 
dictate even a few words, should have had strength to 
deliver so long an oration. Nevertheless, we may assume 
that the substance and tenor of his address are faithfully 
reported ; and they show what an authority he exercised 
over the members of the council, and with what reverence 
they looked up to him as their spiritual father. After he 



chap, xv.] EXHORTATION TO THE MINISTERS. 



525 



had finished his speech Calvin addressed a prayer to God to 
fill them more and more with his gifts, and to govern them by 
his Holy Spirit for the safety of the whole republic. Then, 
shaking hands with each member, he dismissed them ; who 
departed from him, says Beza, with tears, as from their 
common parent. 

At Calvin's request all the Genevese ministers assembled 
at his house on the 28th of April, when he thus addressed 
them : " After my death, persevere, brethren, in this work, 
and be not cast down ; for the Lord will preserve this state 
and church agaiust the threats of their enemies. Let all 
dissensions be banished from among you, and embrace one 
another with mutual charity. Think continually on what 
you owe this church, in which God hath placed you, and 
suffer nothing to withdraw you from it. Otherwise it were 
easy for some who are weary of it to slip out ; but such will 
discover that it is impossible to deceive the Lord. When I 
first came to this city the gospel had, indeed, been announced; 
but things were in a most unsettled state, as if, forsooth, 
Christianity had wholly consisted in the overthrow of idolatry; 
and many were the wicked from whom I suffered the most 
unworthy treatment. But the Lord our God strengthened 
me, who am by nature anything but bold — I state the matter 
as it really is — so that I yielded to none of their attempts. 
Afterwards I returned hither from Strasburgh, having under- 
taken the vocation most unwillingly, for it seemed to me 
that it would be fruitless. The work appeared to be full of 
great and manifold difficulties, and I knew not what the 
Lord had determined ; but as I proceeded I perceived that 
the Lord had really blessed my labours. Do ye, therefore, 
persevere in the same vocation; uphold the discipline that 
has been established, and take care at the same time that the 
people be retained in obedience to the doctrine ; for there are 
some wicked and contumacious ones among them. I leave 
things in no bad state; wherefore you will be the more 



526 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



culpable in the sight of God if, through your remissness, they 
should be overthrown. I declare to you, my brethren, that 
I have always lived with you, and now depart from you, in 
the bonds of the truest and most sincere charity ; but if ever 
during this my illness you should have found me too morose, 
I ask your pardon, and return you my hearty thanks for 
having borne my burthen when I was sick." With these 
words he shook hands with all the ministers, who departed 
from him with sad feelings and moistened eyes. 

Viret was at too great a distance to attend Calvin's death- 
bed ; but on the 2nd of May he received a letter from Farel, 
who, in spite of his age and infirm health, announced his 
intention of coming to take leave of him. The short letter 
in which Calvin dissuaded him from this design seems 
to have been the last which he ever wrote. It is the 
following : " Farewell, my best and truest brother ! and 
since it is God's will that you remain behind me in the 
world, live mindful of our friendship : which, as it was useful 
to the church of God, so the fruit of it awaits us in heaven. 
Pray, do not fatigue yourself on my account. It is with 
difficulty I draw my breath, and expect that every moment 
will be my last. It is enough that I live and die for Christ, 
who is the reward of his followers both in life and death. 
Again, farewell with my brethren. Geneva, 2nd of May, 
1564." Nevertheless, Farel persisted in his resolution, and, 
after an interview with Calvin, returned to Neufchatel on 
the next day. In August of the following year, Farel himself 
sank into the grave, at the advanced age of seventy-six.* 

The days that remained to him Calvin spent in almost 
continual prayer, and in ejaculating sentences from the 
Scriptures ; and though his voice was broken by asthma, his 
eyes retained their brightness to the last. During this time, 
if all who wished to see him had been admitted, his doors 
must have been kept constantly open both day and night ; but, 

* Kirchhofer, Leben Farels, ii. 165. 



CHAP. XV.] 



HIS DEATH. 



527 



as he felt a difficulty in speaking, he requested that people 
would rather pray for him than endeavour to visit him. He 
even told Beza, whom he always saw with pleasure, that he 
felt a scruple in being a hindrance, however slight, to his 
usual occupations. So chary was he, says Beza, of the time 
which he knew was spent in the service of the church, and 
even over-scrupulous of being ever so little a burthen to his 
friends. Thus he lingered on till the 19th of May ; on which 
day the Genevese ministers were accustomed to meet in 
consistory for censures, and afterwards to dine together ; as 
there would be a communion at Pentecost, which happened 
two days after. On this occasion Calvin allowed the dinner 
to be held at his house, and even caused himself to be 
carried into the dinner-room from his bed-chamber, which 
adjoined. Here addressing the company he said : " This is the 
last time I shall meet you at table : " words which made a 
sad impression on them. He then offered up a prayer and 
took a little food ; during dinner discoursing as cheerfully as 
might be under the circumstances. Before the repast was 
quite finished Calvin caused himself to be carried back 
to his bed-room ; and on taking leave said, with a smiling 
countenance : " This wall will not^ hinder my being present 
with you in mind, though absent in body." From that time 
he never rose from his bed. On the 27th of May, the day on 
which he died, he seemed to speak with less difficulty ; but 
this was a last effort of expiring nature. About eight o'clock 
in the evening manifest signs of approaching dissolution 
appeared. Beza had not long quitted him ; but though he 
immediately returned on being apprised of the change, it was 
too late. He found Calvin dead, apparently without a 
struggle, as he rather bore the appearance of having fallen 
into a deep sleep. 

On that night and the following day, says Beza, Geneva 
seemed plunged in universal mourning. The state had to 
regret the loss of one of its wisest citizens; the church its 



528 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. 



[chap. XV. 



pastor ; the academy its teacher ; whilst private persons felt 
as if deprived of a common parent and comforter. Many of 
the citizens, and even several foreigners, amongst whom was 
the Queen of England's ambassador to France, desired to 
view his body. At first they were admitted; but as this 
might have appeared too great an indulgence of the public 
curiosity, his friends, in order to avoid calumny, caused his 
remains to be inclosed early on the following day, which was 
Sunday, in a coffin : and at two o'clock in the afternoon, the 
body, followed by the council, the ministers, the professors of 
the college, and great numbers of the citizens, who showed 
every mark of grief, was carried to the cemetery of Plain - 
palais; where it was interred, by Calvin's own directions, 
without any extraordinary pomp, and without so much as a 
stone to mark the place where it lay. Beza, however, 
honoured his memory with the following copy of Latin 
verses, which he calls Parentalia : 

u Romae mentis terror ille maximus, 
Quern mortuum lugent boni, horrescunt mali, 
Ipsa a quo potuit virtutem discere Virtus — 
Cur adeo exiguo ignotoque in cespite clausus 

Calvin us lateat rogas \ 
Calvinum assidue comitata Modestia vivum 

Hoc tumulo manibus condidit ipsa suis. 
O te beatum cespitem tanto hospite ! 
O cui invidere cuncta possint marmora I" 

On the 8th of June all the ministers and professors 
appeared before the council and represented that Calvin had 
made them some excellent exhortations to concord among 
themselves, and obedience to the magistrates ; the observance 
of which, they said, was the only method to avoid feeling, 
so sharply as they had hitherto done, the loss of that great 
servant of God. The council replied that they still much 
regretted the loss of that great man, on whom God had 
bestowed such excellent gifts, and impressed a character of 
so much majesty.* 

* Registers. Grenus, Fragmens JBiographiques. 



CHAP. XV.] 



HIS WILL. 



529 



Calvin's will, which, as we have said, was made on the 25th 
of April, begins with a long preamble, in which he gives 
thanks to God for having rescued him from idolatry, and 
made him a minister of the gospel ; and expresses a sense of 
his own sinfulness and unworthiness, and of the coldness of 
his zeal : in which last self-accusation, however, neither his 
friends nor his enemies will be ready to agree. The whole 
value of his estate, after making as good an estimate as he 
could of his furniture and library, amounted only to 255 
gold crowns. He constituted his brother Anthony his 
nominal heir, in trust for his own children ; requesting 
Anthony himself to be satisfied with a silver salver. Samuel 
and John, his brother's sons, were to receive, after their 
father's death, 40 gold crowns each ; his daughters, Ann, 
Susan, and Dorothy, 30 gold crowns each ; and to his 
other nephew, David, he left only 25, " on account of his 
levity and petulance." He gave ten gold crowns to the 
schools ; the same sum to the hospital for poor refugees ; 
and another ten to the daughter of Charles Constans, a 
cousin. If his estate showed any surplus it was to be 
distributed in the same rateable proportion between his 
nephews and nieces ; not excluding David, " if by the blessing 
of God he should amend his conduct." He appointed his 
brother and Laurence Normandie his executors. The will 
is witnessed by the following persons : Theodore de Beze, 
Raymond Chauvet, Michael Cop, Louis Enoch, Nicholas 
Colladon, Jaques des Bordes, and Henry Scrimger, professor 
of arts, all citizens of Geneva.* 

It might seem an injustice towards Calvin's character, if 
Beza's ample and laboured account, or rather panegyric 
of it, were not inserted here. From a long and intimate 
acquaintance with him, Beza had better opportunities than 
almost any other person of becoming acquainted with his 

* The will is given at length in Beza's Life of Calvin, and in P. Henry, hi., 
Beil. 15. 

M M 



530 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



virtues and his failings. At the same time we must remember 
that he owed all that he was to Calvin, to whom during his 
lifetime he displayed the greatest devotion, not to say 
subserviency, taking up his quarrels as if they were his own, 
and sparing no personal exertions in the pursuit of them ; 
that after Calvin's death he succeeded to his post of chief 
minister at Geneva; and that he had thus every motive, 
both of public interest and private affection, to represent the 
bright side of his teacher's character. 

" Calvin," says Beza, " was of middling stature, of a pale 
and dark complexion ; his eyes, which betokened the sagacity 
of his intellect, retained their brilliancy to the last. In 
conformity with his singular modesty, he observed in his 
dress a just medium between over-nicety and slovenliness ; in 
like manner with regard to his diet, as he was far removed 
from luxury, so on the other hand his frugality was decent. 
He ate but little, and for many years together took but one 
meal a day, alleging his bad digestion. He gave but little 
time to sleep. His memory was almost incredible, insomuch 
that he would immediately recognise persons whom he had 
seen but once, and that many years previously. When 
employed in dictating, he could resume the thread of his 
discourse without being prompted, after having been inter- 
rupted for several hours ; and though overwhelmed with 
business, he never forgot anything appertaining to his office. 
His judgment was so exact, that it often bore the appearance 
of prophecy; nor do I remember an instance of any one 
having been misled who followed his advice. He was sparing 
of his words, and despised what is called eloquence. Yet he 
was anything but an unskilful writer ; and though his works 
are more voluminous than those of any author in the memory 
of ourselves or of our fathers, yet no theologian has yet existed 
whose style is characterised by greater purity, force, and 
judgment. His youthful studies, and a natural acuteness of 
intellect, strengthened by the habit of dictating, made him 



chap, xv.] beza's character of him. 



531 



never at a loss for weighty and apposite language, and he 
wrote very much as he spoke. Retaining to the last the 
doctrine which he had taught in his youth, he had no retrac- 
tations to make ; a thing that can be affirmed of but few 
theologians of our age." 

u Though naturally grave, yet in society nobody was more 
cheerful. He was very tolerant of those vices which spring 
from the natural infirmity of men ; so that he neither shamed 
nor frightened the weaker brethren by importunate repre- 
hension, nor on the other hand nourished their faults 
by connivance or flattery. He was as great an enemy 
of adulation, pretence, and dishonesty, particularly where 
religion was concerned, as he was a sincere friend of truth, 
simplicity, and candour. Prom temperament he was some- 
what prone to anger, a failing which was increased by the 
laborious life he led. Yet the spirit of God had taught him 
so to govern his wrath, that no expression unworthy of a 
good man ever fell from his lips ; and much less did he 
proceed to greater extremities : nor indeed was he easily 
excited to anger, except when religion was in question, or 
when he had to deal with the obstinate." 

"That so many virtues, both public and private, should 
have so numerous enemies, will surprise no one who has read 
the history of those men who, even among heathen nations, 
have been eminent for their love of what seemed to them to 
be virtue : far less, then, should it excite our wonder that so 
unflinching an asserter of the sound doctrine, so constant a 
follower of purity of life, should have been so rancorously 
opposed both at home and abroad. We should rather be 
astonished how one man was able, like a sort of Christian 
Hercules, to overcome so many monsters by the use of that 
strong club, the word of God. The numerous adversaries 
raised up against him by Satan — amongst whom were none 
but those who had also declared war against religion and 
probity — were but so many trophies of victory which the 

m m 2 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



Lord granted to his servant. By them Calvin was painted 
as a heretic ; as if, forsooth, Christ himself had not been 
reproached with the same appellation, and that, too, by the 
priests. It is true that the Genevese banished him; but 
they also recalled him ; and what was the fate of the Apostles, 
of Athanasius, of Chrysostom ? " 

"Many other reproaches are heaped npon him: but of 
what kind ? He was ambitious, forsooth ; nay, he even aimed 
at establishing a new papacy : this is the charge brought 
against a man who preferred this method of life, this republic, 
in a word, this church, which I may truly call the very 
workshop of poverty, before everything else ! Or is he charged 
with avarice ? When all his goods, his library included, which 
fetched a good price, scarcely amounted to 300 gold crowns. 
So that he himself spoke no less truly than appropriately 
when, in refuting this most shameful calumny, he observed : 
f If I cannot persuade certain persons during my lifetime 
that I am no lover of money, at least it will be proved at my 
death/ The council can testify that though his stipend was 
very slender, he was so far from being discontented with it 
that he pertinaciously refused any increase." 

" Others reproach him with his brother Anthony's getting 
divorced from his first wife, on account of adultery. But 
what would they have said, had he continued to cherish an 
adulteress ? And if the disgrace of this shameless woman 
is to fall upon him, what will become of Jacob, of David, 
nay of the very family of the Son of God, who himself 
plainly noted one of them as devil ? The many proofs he has 
left of his labours show how much he indulged in luxury and 
pleasure. Some scruple not to affirm, and even to write, that 
he reigned supreme at Geneva, both in church and state, and 
even sat in the judgment-seat. Others have a story how he 
got a living man to represent a corpse, in order to raise him 
from the dead : which is as rank a falsehood as to call him 
the Pope of Borne, as that rhapsodist of the Sorbonne, 



chap, xv.] beza's character of him. 



533 



Claude Despence, dared to give out in a most calumnious 
book. But what can shame such men ? Charges like these 
stand in no need of refutation either with those who knew this 
great man when living, or with that judicious portion of 
posterity that shall estimate his character by his writings." 

" Having here faithfully recorded the history of his earthly 
career/of which I have been an eye-witness for the space of 
sixteen years, I think myself well entitled to affirm, that in 
him was proposed for the imitation of us all a most beautiful 
example of a truly christian life and death ; and one which 
it may be as easy to calumniate as it would be difficult to 
follow." 

Beza, in his French Life, adds a few other particulars of 
Calvin's habits. His weak digestion, and want of appetite, 
caused him to seek something more delicate than the ordinary 
fare which appeared at table. Sometimes in the middle of 
the day he would suck an egg and take a glass of wine. He 
would occasionally join his intimate friends in a game of 
quoits, or la clef, or some other pastime not forbidden 
by the laws. But this occurred very seldom; for he was 
generally occupied the whole day in writing or studying s 
except that after dinner he would walk about his room for 
a quarter of an hour, or perhaps half an hour if he had 
anybody to keep him company.* 

That Calvin was in some respects a really great man, and 
that the eloquent panegyric of his friend and disciple Beza 
contains much that is true, will hardly be denied. In any 
circumstances his wonderful abilities and extensive learning 
would have made him a shining light among the doctors 
of the Reformation; an accidental, or, as his friends and 
followers would say, a providential and predestinated visit 
to Geneva, made him the head of a numerous and powerful 
sect. Naturally deficient in that courage which forms so 
prominent a trait in Luther's character, and which prompted 



* Vie de Calv., p. 145, et seq., Geneve, 1663. 



534 



LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. 



[chap. XV. 



him to beard kings and emperors face to face, Calvin arrived 
at Geneva at a time when the rough and initiatory work of 
Reform had already been accomplished by his bolder and 
more active friend Parel. Some peculiar circumstances in 
the political condition of that place favoured the views which 
he seems to have formed very shortly after his arrival. 
By the extent of its territory, and the number of its popula- 
tion, a small city ; by its natural and artificial strength, and 
by its Swiss alliances, an independent state, secure from 
the attacks of its powerful neighbours ; by its laws and 
institutions a republic tending towards an oligarchy ; and 
by the enthusiasm of a new religion, which had helped to 
establish its civil liberties, disposed to bow its neck to the 
yoke of the gospel; Geneva offered every facility to a 
master mind like Calvin's, which had conceived the idea of 
establishing a theocracy, of which he himself was to be the 
oracle, the prophet, and the dictator; and from which, as 
from a common centre, his peculiar opinions were to spread 
in successive and still expanding circles through the rest of 
Europe. The tact and skill, the fortitude, the consistency 
of purpose, and energy of will, which he displayed in 
carrying out his design, are worthy of all admiration. 
Attacked, menaced, banished, he carries with him and 
elaborates his favourite scheme. In the years of his exile 
his eye still reverts to the little Goshen which he had marked 
out for his experiment. His addresses to the Genevese 
church are still those of a pastor to his congregation ; he still 
throws his shield over them, to protect them from the 
insidious attacks of Rome. The anticipated hour of recall 
arrives. It is now Calvin's turn to make conditions. 
Geneva woos him back ; but the insulted pastor is not to be 
so lightly won. He professes repugnance to return to a city 
which his own writings show to have been the incessant 
object of his thoughts. At last he consents ; but the return 
which he concedes as a favour strengthens his hands to carry 



CHAP. XV.] 



ANOTHER ESTIMATE OF HIM. 



535 



out his views. The preceding narrative has already shown 
how, from that time to the honr of his death, his care and 
labour were constantly directed to the consolidation of his 
power, and to the development of his scheme of ecclesiastical 
polity. In these objects he was so successful that . it may be 
safely affirmed that none of the Reformers, not even Luther 
himself, attained to so absolute and extensive an influence. 

It may be said that the preceding sketch presents us with 
the lineaments of a successful political chief, as much as with 
those of the founder of a great religious sect ; and it may be 
inquired whether we should consider Calvin's aims to have 
been directed by personal ambition, or by zeal for God's 
honour and glory. Two objects so different seem utterly 
incompatible. We cannot serve both God and Mammon ; 
we cannot seek at once to promote our own aggrandisement 
and that of God's kingdom. That, in order to be acceptable 
to the Divine Being, the feeling of religion must be pure and 
unmixed, cannot for a moment be questioned ; yet the heart 
of man is a complicated piece of mechanism, and the results 
which it shows are seldom the effect of unmixed motives. 
Many are the hidden springs and wheels — hidden, very 
frequently, even from ourselves, — which by their combined 
movements contribute to regulate our conduct. That a man 
who devoted himself so ardently to the study of divinity as 
Calvin did, and who laboured with such industry and warmth 
to defend and propagate the Reformation, should have been 
influenced solely by the hope of attaining reputation and power 
by these means, is scarcely credible; whilst, on the other hand, 
there are parts of his conduct which it would be difficult to 
refer to purely religious motives. An irritable pride is 
one of the salient traits of his character. Of this the 
preceding narrative has recorded many striking instances. 
This feeling particularly betrayed itself where Calvin's 
literary reputation, or his authority as a teacher, was 
concerned ; for these were the instruments of his power 



536 LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. [chap. xv. 

and influence. He loved Castellio till their views began 
to clash, and then he pursued him with the most unrelenting 
malignity. Though acquainted with the views of Socinus and 
the other Italian Antitrinitarians, he tolerated those heretics 
so long as they flattered him ; but when he discovered that 
this flattery was a mere cloak and pretence, his indignation 
knew no bounds. Nay, he even endured and corresponded 
with Servetus, the arch-heretic of them all, till he found 
himself ridiculed and abused by the Spaniard, and then he 
formed the resolution of putting him to death ; a design 
which he cherished for seven years, and which he effected 
the moment it was in his power to do so : and that in spite 
of the mild and tolerant principles which his understanding, 
when calm and unruffled, had led him deliberately to lay 
down. Other instances of the same feeling, but exercised 
on a minor scale, and on more ignoble victims, will occur to 
the reader, and especially the case of Pierre Ameaux. But 
though on a minor scale they do not the less, but rather 
more clearly, betray the dominant passion. Beza admits 
Calvin's proneness to anger, which, however, is sometimes 
more correctly characterised by Calvin himself by the name 
of morosity. And indeed not only the preceding instances 
of his conduct, but the spirit and tenor of the greater part of 
his controversial tracts, show that a man may be a profound 
theologian, and yet not comprehend the true spirit of 
Christianity. 

That Calvin's mode of life was frugal and temperate, and 
that he was untainted with the mean passion of avarice, may 
be readily admitted. The last, indeed, is peculiarly the vice 
of little minds ; and it may be safely affirmed, that no man 
of really enlarged understanding, and commanding genius, 
ever loved money merely for its own sake. Calvin's ambition 
was of a different kind. He rather sought to leave his name 
and principles to posterity, than a few thousand dollars, more 
or less, to his heirs. 



CHAP. XV. J 



HIS LITEEAEY MERITS. 



537 



Beza's remarks on Calvin's intellectual qualities will admit 
of no dispute. On this ground both his friends and opponents 
are agreed ; and in the writings of the latter will be found 
many tributes to his genius and learning. The president 
De Thou characterises him as endowed with a strong and acute 
understanding, and with admirable powers of expression.* 
Davila says of him that he was a man of great, but restless, 
mind, of wonderful eloquence, and of extensive and varied 
erudition. f And Florimond de Remond, in his " History of 
the Birth, Progress, and Decline of this Century," observes : 
"Calvin showed from his youth that he was not carried 
away by sensual pleasures. In a dry and attenuated body 
he preserved a green and vigorous mind, prompt at repartee, 
and bold in attack. He fasted much even in his youth, 
either for the sake of his health and to get rid of the 
head-ache which continually afflicted him, or to keep his 
mind in better order for writing and studying, and to improve 
his memory." J 

Calvin's style, both in Latin and French, is remarkable 
for force, clearness, and facility. Like all men of truly 
deep thought, he never leaves his reader at a loss for his 
meaning. It is only the pretenders to profundity who puzzle 
by reflections which they have not the power to develop 
clearly in their own minds. His Latin style is not marked 
by unnecessary verbiage, merely for the sake of rounding a 
period, nor by any affectation of Ciceronian purity, the 
besetting snare of the writers of that age : and if it be truly 
remarked that the best test of modern Latin is that it should 
be read with facility and pleasure by a scholar, Calvin's 
may be pronounced excellent. There is hardly, perhaps, a 
sentence in his works that requires to be read twice in order 

* " Acri vir ac vehement! ingenio, et admirabili facundia prseditus." — Hist., 
lib. xxxvi., anno 1564. 

f " Uomo di grande, ma d'inquieto ingegno, di maravigliosa facondia, e di 
varia e moltiplice erudizione." — Guerre Civ. di Francia, lib. i., p. 59. 

J Liv. vii., c. 10, quoted by P. Henry, i., Beil. 19. 



538 



LIFE OF JOHN CALYE5T. 



[chap. XV. 



to be understood. The admirable way in which he used his 
mother tongue is best testified by his countrymen. Pasquier 
remarks that he had enriched the French language with num- 
berless beautiful turns.* The Abbe d'Artigny observes that he 
knew the turn and genius of the Trench tongue better than any 
man of his age.f And Bossuet draws the following parallel 
between him and Luther : " Let us then yield to Calvin, 
since he is so desirous of it, the glory of having written as 
well as any man of his age ; nay, let us even place him, if 
you will, above Luther : for though Luther had a more 
lively and original turn of mind, Calvin, though inferior in 
genius, seemed to carry off the palm by study. In oral 
discourse Luther triumphed ; but Calvin's pen was more 
correct, especially in Latin, and his style, which was more 
severe, was also more connected and refined. Both excelled 
in speaking their native tongue, and both possessed an 
extraordinary vehemence." J To these testimonies might 
be added that of D'Alembert, and other more modern 
writers. 

Calvin was a fair Greek scholar ; though in this branch of 
learning he was undoubtedly surpassed by some of his 
contemporaries. His knowledge of Hebrew is said to have 
been only moderate. § 

The merits of Calvin as a commentator have been univer- 
sally recognised ; even by those opposed to some of his 
peculiar views. On this subject Father Simon says : 
" Calvin had a very elevated mind ; and had he been less 
obstinate, and not engrossed by the desire of making himself 
the head of a party, his labours might have been useful to 

* " Car aussi etoit il homme bien escrivant taut en Latin que Francois, et 
auquel nostre langue Francaise est grandemeut redevable pour l'avoir enrichie 
d'une infinite' de beaux traits : et a la mienne volonte que c'eust ete' en meilleur 
subject." — Redierches de la France, lib. viii., c. lv., p. 858. 

*f* Nouveaux Memoires, &c, ii. 71. + Hist, cles Variations, &c, ix. 319. 

§ See Schrokh, Reform. Geschichte, ii. 205, and the Scaligeriana prima, 
quoted by P. Henry, i., Beil. 1 8. 



CHAP. XV.] 



CONCLUSION. 



539 



the church. There is in his ' Commentaries on Scripture 3 
something which at once pleases us ; and as he had devoted 
much time to the study of mankind, his works abound with 
a touching morality, which he also endeavours to render just 
and conformable to his text." * Bishop Horsley, and other 
divines of the English church, have also cheerfully acknow- 
ledged Calvin's merits in this department of sacred literature ; 
the magnitude of his labours in which may be estimated 
from the fact of their filling seven out of the nine folio 
volumes which constitute his works. 

In his "Commentaries," the peculiar doctrines which mark 
his system of theology occur of course in a scattered manner, 
as the occasion of his text may call them forth. But before 
he had commenced any of his exegetical works, of which that 
on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, published in 1589, was the 
first, he had already arranged his scheme of divinity, and 
published the results of it in his " Institutes." This work 
bears the impress of an independent and comprehensive 
study of Scripture ; from which, aided by the works of the 
Fathers, and especially of St. Augustin, Calvin built up his 
system ; which deserves the praise of originality rather for 
the coherence and symmetry with which it is arranged, and 
which show it to be the work of a single mind, than for any 
novelty in the views which it develop es. The doctrine of 
predestination, which is generally regarded as that which 
principally characterises Calvin, is in fact that of St. Augustin, 
and even of most of the Reformers, though they did not 
carry it to such a rigorous extent as he. Probably his best 
claim to originality, with regard to any single part of his 
doctrine, rests on that of the Lord's Supper. 

I have thus endeavoured to represent the life of Calvin 
impartially, neither concealing his virtues nor exaggerating 
his faults. The terms of unqualified and extravagant 
admiration in which some of his recent biographers speak 

* Hist. Critique du Vieux Test., quoted by P. Henry, i., Beil. 1 9. 



540 LIFE OF JOHN CALYIN. [chap. xv. 

of him, seem to me to be neither consistent with facts, nor 
of wholesome example. This unbounded veneration for 
remarkable men — this hero-worship — is a sign rather of 
weakness than of strength. A mind that suffers itself to be 
dazzled by some brilliant qualities, is unable to take that 
steady view which is necessary to the just estimation of 
a character ; and in viewing the leaders of great religious 
movements, this seems to me to be particularly dangerous. 
It is to be hoped that the days of persecution and intolerance 
are gone, never to return ; but if ever they are to be revived, 
it is such a spirit that will lead to them. A lapse of three 
centuries has afforded time enough to mellow opinions ; 
and this should be essentially the age of impartiality and 
moderation. 



APPENDIX. 



I. 

The fullest account of Servetus will be found in Mosheim's 
" Geschichte des beruhmten Spanischen Artzes M* Serveto," 
forming the second volume of his " Ketzer-Geschichte" 4to, 
Helmstadt, 1748. Mosheim had long been collecting materials for 
a life of Servetus, but not finding leisure or opportunity to use 
them, intrusted them to M. Allvoerden, who had been his pupil, 
and who was desirous of trying his skill on some historical subject. 
Allvoerden 's work, which was not a masterpiece, was severely handled 
by Armand de la Chapelle, the pastor of the French congregation at 
the Hague, in a periodical publication entitled " Bibliotheque Rai~ 
sonneedes Ouvrages des Savans de V Europe," vol. i. This induced 
Mosheim to write his book, which he drew up with the greatest care, 
from the materials which he then possessed, and which consisted 
chiefly of the proces of Servetus at Geneva. The recent publication 
of the original documents by M. Rilliet {Relation du Proces Criminel 
intente d Geneve a M. Servet., Geneve, 1844) shows that the 
extracts used by Mosheim were authentic. (See P. Henry, iii. 102.) 
Shortly afterwards, Mosheim obtained some fresh materials in an 
abstract from the trial of Servetus at Vienne, furnished to him by a 
French ecclesiastic. The additional information thus conveyed, and 
which led him, in some cases, to modify and alter his views, he 
published in his " Neue Nachrichten" Helmstadt, 4to, 1750. This 
tract is appended to his " Geschichte" The Abbe d'Artigny had 
also obtained the same materials from Vienne, and published them, 
before Mosheim's second work appeared, in the " JSfouveaux Memoires 



542 



APPENDIX. 



d' Histoire, de Critique, et de Literature," torn, ii., 1749. The Abbe, 
however, frequently draws on his imagination, and states circum- 
stances as facts, which are not borne out by the evidence. Besides 
these works, the reader may consult the " Bibliotheque Anglaise," 
torn. ii. ; the account of Servetus in Chauffepied's " Dictionary ; " 
and particularly Trechsel's " Antitrinitarier ," b. i.; and Dr. Henry's 
" Leben Calvins," b. iii. These documents and authorities are often 
at variance. In the account in the text, I have selected the circum- 
stances which seemed most probable. 



II. 

Calvin's letter toFrellon. (See the Appendix to Mosheim's " Neue 
Nachrichten") 

Seigneuk Jehan, 

Pourceque vos lettres dernieres me furent apportees sur 
mon partement je n'eus pas le loisir de faire reponse a ce qui estoit 
enclos dedans. Depuis mon retour, au premier loisir que j'ay eu, 
j'ay bien voulu satisfaire a votre desir, non pas que j'aye grand 
espoir de profiter gueres envers un tel homme, selon que je le vois 
dispose : mais afin d'essayer encore s'il y aura quelque moyen de le 
reduire, qui sera quand Dieu aura si bien besongne en luy, qu'il 
devienne tout aultre. Pourcequ'il m'avoit escrit, d'un ton si superbe, 
je luy ay bien voulu rabattre un petit de son orgueil, parlant 
a luy plus durement que ma coutume ne porte. Mais je ne l'ay pu 
faire aultrement. Car je vous asseure qu'il n'y a legon qui luy soit 
plus necessaire que d'apprendre humilite. Mais nous y devons aussi 
tenir la main. Si Dieu nous faict cette grace a luy et a nous que la 
presente response luy profite, j'auray de quoi me rejouir. S'il 
poursuit d'un tel style comme il a faict maintenant, vous perdrez 
temps a. me plus solliciter a travailler envers luy, car j'ay d'aultres 
affaires qui me pressent de plus pres. Et ferois conscience de m'y 
plus occuper,ne doubtant pas que ce ne fust un Sathan pour me distraire 
des aultres lectures plus utiles. Et pourtant je vous prye de vous 
contenter de ce que j'en ay faict, si vous n'y voyez meilleur ordre. 



APPENDIX. 



543 



Sur quoi apres m'estre de bon coeur recommande a vous, je prye 
nostre bon Dieu vous avoir en sa garde. 

Votre serviteur et entier amy, 
Ce 13 Fevrier, 1546. CHARLES D'ESPEVILLE. 

A Sire Jehan Frellon, Marchand Libraire, demeurant a Lyon, en 
la rue Merciere, Enseigne de l'Escu de Coulogne. 

III. 

As Calvin's letter to Farel mentioned in the text is not inserted in 
the ordinary collections of his correspondence, it is reprinted here 
from P. Henry, iii., Beilagen, p. 65. It will also be found in Audin, 
Vie de Calvin, ii. 314, note. 

CALVINUS FARELLO. 
De fratribus quieto nunc ammo eris post acceptas Claudii literas. 
Nuncius qui attulerat, cum a concione redirem post horam nonam, 
rogavit an mese essent parataa. Negavi : sed jussi ut domi mea3 
pranderet cum uxore (eram enim ipse invitatus a Macrino) ; statim a 
prandio adfuturum me promisi, ut paucis responderem. Non venit : 
sed momento se proripuit, ut stuperem tarn subito discessu. Et 
tamen visus mihi fuerat juvenis alioqui non malus. Utinam cogitent 
fratres, sibi omnes difficultates ita expediri Dei manu, quo citius 
festinent. Non oportuit cessare Israelitas, cum patefactus illis esset 
exitus, quin mox ad fugam se accingerent. Hoc fuisset epistolse 
argumentum, nisi me nuncius fefellisset, verum ultro eos ardere 
confido. Nunc venio ad vestra certamina. Si quid adhuc molestia3 
vobis improbi facessant cum istse literse venient, breviter complexus 
sum qusenam agendi ratio mihi placeat. Velim autem primum agi 
viva voce : deinde, hoc scriptum aut simile tradi. Ridebitis forte 
quod nihil nisi vulgare proferam : cum a me reconditum aliquid et 
sublime expectaveritis. At ego me vestra opinione obstringi nolo, 
neque etiam sequum est. Malui tamen ineptus esse ita scribendo 
quam tacendo committere ut preces vestras a me neglectas putaretis. 
Si rationibus et hac legitima via nihil fuerit effectum, clam apud 
Bernates agendum erit ne feram illam ex cavea emittant. De foedere 
non satis assequor mentem tuam : nisi quod suspicor, quo Bernates 



544 



APPENDIX, 



auxilio vobis sint, te ad aliquam conjunctionem animum adjicere : ut 
quemadmodum jure civitatis libertatem populi tuentur, ita honesto 
aliquo titulo tueantur ministros in officio suo. Si id est non improbo : 
modo memineritis ad heec extraordinaria remedia tunc demum esse 
confugiendum, ubi ultimae necessitatis est excusatio. Deinde ut 
omnes cautiones adhibeatis, ne quid in posterum vobis noceat, semel 
fuisse adjutos : ac pactionis nunc transacts magis vos pceniteat, 
quam pristinse servitutis. Marcurtius certe jam locum sibi despondit. 
Fratrum enim consensum nihil se morari prsedicat, quia a magistratu 
et populo expetitur, nec fremere in te dubitat. Denique cum ante 
tempus malitiam animi sui prodat, macbinis omnibus repellendus est, 
ne emergat in locum unde efficere quod minatur possit. De iis qui 
sub prsesidii specie perpetuam dominationis sedem figere hie volebant, 
rumores sinamus in utramque partem vagari. Civiliter et placide 
occursum est eorum impudentise, ita ut eos sui pigere debeat. Spero 
quieturos. Nostris quantum possum suadeo ut securi dormiant. 
Servetus nuper ad me scripsit, ac Uteris adjunxit longum volumen 
suorum deliriorum cum thrasonicd jactantid, me stupenda et hactenus 
inaudita visurum. Si mihi placeat, hue se venturum recipit. Sed 
nolo fidem meam interponere. Namsi venerit, modo valeat mea 
authoritas, vivum exire nunquam patiar. 

Jam elapsi sunt ultra quindecim dies ex quo cartularius (P. Ameaux) 
in carcere tenetur : propterea quod tanta protervia domi suae inter 
ccenandum adversum me debacchatus est, ut constet non fuisse tunc 
mentis compotem. Ego dissimulanter tuli, nisi quod testatus sum 
judicibus, mihi nequaquam gratum fore si cum eo summo jure ageretur. 
Volui eum invisere. Senatus decreto prohibitus fuit aditus. Et 
tamen boni quidam viri scilicet, me crudelitatis insimulant, quod 
tarn pertinaciter meas injurias ulciscar. Rogatus sum ab ejus amicis, 
ut deprecatoris partes susciperem. Facturum me negavi, nisi his 
duabus exceptionibus : ne qua suspicio in me resideret, atque ut 
Christi honor maneret salvus. Jam defunctus sum. Expecto quid 
Senatus pronunciet. Vale frater et amice integerrime, cum 
sororibus, nostri omnes vos salutant. Fratribus dices plurimam 
salutem meo et symmistarum nomine. Deus vobis semper ac vestris 
faustis laboribus benedicat. 

JOANNES CALVINUS TUUS. 

Geneva, idibus Februar. 1546. 



APPENDIX. 



545 



IV. 

TRIE'S FIRST LETTER TO ARNEYS. 
Monsieur mon Cousin, 

J e vous mercie bien fort de tant de belles remontrances 
qu'avez faictes, et ne doubte point que vous n' y procediez de bonne 
amitie quand vous taschez a me reduire au lieu dont je suis party. 
D'aultant que je ne suis homme verse aux lettres comme vous, je me 
deporte de satisfaire aux poincts et articles que vous m'alleguez. 
Tant y a qu'en la cognoissance que Dieu m' a donne, j'auroys de 
quoy repondre, car, Dieu mercy, je ne suis pas si mal fonde que je ne 
sache que l'eglise a Jesu Christ pour son chef, dont elle ne peult etre 
separee, et qu'elle n'a vie ni salut, et que du tout elle ne peult 
consister, qu'en la verite de Dieu, qui est contenue en l'ecriture 
sainte. Parquoy tout ce que vous me pourriez alleguer de l'eglise 
je le tiendrai pour phantosme, sinon que Jesu Christ y preside, 
comme ayant toute autorite, et que la parole de Dieu y regne comme 
le fondement et substance : sans cela toutes vos formalites ne sont 
rien. Je vous prie de penser (sic) la liberte dont je use envers vous, 
qui n'est point seulement pour mayntenir ma cause mais aussi de vous 
donner occasion de penser mieux a vous. Mais pour le faire court, 
je me suis ebay comment vous m' osez reprocher entre aultres choses 
que nous n' avons nulle discipline ecclesiastique ny ordre, et que ceux 
qui nous enseignent ont introduit une licence pour mettre confusion 
partout ; et cependant je vois (Dieu mercy) que les vices sont mieux 
corriges de par de ca que ne sont pas en toutes vos Officialites. Et 
quant a la doctrine, et ce qui concerne la relligion, combien qu'il y ait 
plus grande liberte que entre nous, neanmoins Ton ne souffrira pas 
que le nom de Dieu soit blaspheme, et que Ton seme les doctrines et 
mauvaises opinions que cela ne soit reprime. Et je vous puis 
alleguer un exemple qui est a votre grande confusion, puisque il le 
faut dire. C'est que Ton soutient de par de la un heretique, qui 
merite bien d'etre brusle partout ou il sera. Quand je vous parle 
d'heretique j'entends un homme qui sera condamne des papistes 
aultant que de nous, on de moins qui le doit etre. Car combien que 
nous soyons differens en beaucoup de choses, si avons vous commun 

N N 



546 



APPENDIX. 



que en une seule essence de Dieu il y a trois personnes, et que le 
pere a engendre son fils, qui est sa sagesse eternelle, de tout temps, 
et qu'il a eu sa vertu eternelle qui est son St. Esprit. Or quand un 
homme dira que la Ternite laquelle nous tenons est un Cerberus et 
monstre d'enfer, et desgorgera toutes les villainies possibles de penser 
contre tout ce que l'Ecriture nous enseigne de la generation eternelle 
du fils de Dieu, et que le St. Esprit est la vertu du pere et du fils, et 
se moquera a gueule deployee de tout ce que les anciens docteurs en 
ont dit, je vous prye en quel lieu et estime l'aurez vous ? Je dis 
cegi pour obvier a toute replique que vous me pourriez faire que 
vous ne tiendrez point par dol pour erreur ce que nous disons etre 
tel ; ce que je vous dis non seulement vous confesserez etre erreur 
mais heresie detestable, qui est pour abolir toute Chrestienete. 
II fault que je parle francbement. Quelle bonte est ce que Ton 
fasse mourir ceux qui diront qu'il ne faut invoquer qu'un seul 
Dieu au nom de Jesu Cbrist, qu'il n'y a aultre satisfaction que 
celle qui a ete faite en la mort et passion de J. Cbrist, qu'il n' 
y a aultre purgatoire qu' en son sang, qu'il n'y a aultre service 
agreable a Dieu que celui qu'il commande et approuve par sa parole, 
que toutes peintures et images que les bommes contrefont sont autant 
d'idoles qui profanent sa Majeste, qu'on doit garder les sacremens a 
tel usage qu'il a ete ordonne de Jesu Cbrist. Voire, et qu'on ne se 
contente pas de faire mourir telles gens d'une simple mort, mais qu'on 
les brusle cruellement. Cependant°voila qui nommera Jesu Cbrist idole, 
qui detruira tous les fondemens de la foi, qui amassera toutes les 
reveries des beretiques anciens, qui meme condamnera le baptisme des 
petits enfans, l'appellant inventions diaboliques ; et celui-la aura la 
vogue entre vous, et le supportera-t-on comme s'il n'avoit point failly ? 
Je vous prie ou est votre zele que vous pretendez, et 6u est la police 
de cette belle bierarcbie que vous magnifiez tant ? L 'homme dont 
je vous parle a ete condamne en toutes les eglises lesquelles vous 
reprouvez ; cependant il est souffert entre vous, voire jusqu a y faire 
imprimer ses livres, qui sont si pleins de blasphemes qu'il il ne faut 
point que j'en die plus. C'est un Espagnol Portugallois nomme 
Michael Servetus de son propre nom, mais il se nomme Villeneuve a 
present, faisant le medecin. II a demeure quelque temps a Lyon, 
maintenant il se tient a Vienne, oii le livre dont je parle a ete 



APPENDIX. 



547 



imprime par un quidam qui a la dresse imprimerie, nomme Balthazard 
Arnoullet. Et afin que vous ne pensiez que je en parle a credit, je 
vous envoye la premiere feuille pour enseigne. Vous dictes que les 
livres qui ne contiennent aultres choses sinon qu'il se faut tenir a la 
pure simplicite de l'Ecriture sainte, empoisonnent le monde, et si 
viennent d'ailleurs vous ne les pouvez souffrir ; cependant vous couvez 
la les poisons qui sont pour aneantir l'Ecriture sainte et ineme tout 
ce que vous tenez de Chrestienete. Je me suis quasi oublie en vous 
recitant cet exemple,, car j'ay ete quatre fois plus long, que je ne 
pensois ; mais l'enormite du cas me fait passer mesure, et voila qui 
sera cause que je ne vous feray plus longs propos sur les aultres 
matieres. Comme aussi de fait il me semble qu'il n'est pas grand 
besoin que je vous reponde sur cbacun article ; seulement je vous 
prieray d'entrer un peu plus profond en votre conscience pour vous 
juger vous meme, afin que quand il faudra venir devant le grand Juge 
vous ne soyez pas condamne. Car pour le dire en ung mot, nous 
n'avons aultre debat sinon que nous demandons que Dieu soit ecoute. 
Parquoy faisant fin a la presente, je le prieray qu'il vous donne oreilles 
pour ou'ir, et cceur pour obeir. Cependant qu'il vous ait en sa sainte 
garde, me recommendant de bien bon cceur a votre bonne grace, et de 
Mons. mon Cousin, votre frere. 
Be Geneve } ce 26 Fevrier. 



TRIE'S SECOND LETTER TO ARNEYS. 

Monsieur mon Cousin, 

Quand je vous ecrivis la lettre que vous avez communiquee 
a, ceux qui y etoient taxes de nonchalance je ne pensois point que la 
chose dut venir si avant. Seulement mon intention etoit de vous 
remontrer quel est le beau zele et devotion de ceux qui se disent 
piliers de l'eglise, bien qu'ils souffrent tel desordre au milieu d'eux, 
et cependant persecutent si durement les pauvres Chretiens qui 
desirent de suivre Dieu en simplicite. Pour ce que l'exemple etoit 
notable, et que j' en etois averti, il me sembla que l'occasion s'offroit 
d'en toucher en mes lettres selon la matiere que je traitois. Or 
puisque vous avez declare ce que j 'avais entendu ecrire privement a 

N N 2 



548 



APPENDIX. 



vous seul, Dieu veuille pour le mieux que cela profite a purger la 
Chretienete de telles ordures, voyre de pestes si mortelles. S'ils 
ont tant bon vouloir de s'y employer comme vous le dites, il me 
semble que la cliose n'y est pas trop difficile, encore que ne yous 
puisse fouruir pour le present de ce que vous demandez, assavoir du 
livre imprime ; car je vous mettrai en main plus pour vous convaincre, 
assavoir, deux douzaines de pieces ecrites de celui dont il est question, 
ou une partie de ses heresies est contenue. Si on lui mettoit au 
devant le livre imprime il le pourroit renier, ce qu'il ne pourra faire 
de son ecriture. Parquoy les gens que vous dites ayant la cliose 
toute prouvee n'auront nulle excuse s'ils dissimulent plus, ou different 
a, y pcurvoir. Tout le reste est bien par dega, tant le gros livre que 
les autres traites ecrits de la meme main de l'auteur ; mais je vous 
confesserai une chose, que j'ai eu grande peine a retirer ce que je 
vous envois de M. Calvin ; non pas qu'il ne desire que tels blasphemes 
execrables ne soient reprimes, mais pour ce qu'il lui semble que son 
devoir est, quant a lui qui n'a point de glaive de justice, de con- 
vaincre plutot les heresies par doctrine, que de les poursuivre par tel 
moyen ; mais je 1' ai tant importune lui remontrant le reproche de 
legierete qui m'en pourroit avenir s'il ne m'aidoit, qu'en la fin, il s'est 
accorde a me bailler ce que verrez. Au reste j'espere bien, quand 
le cas se demeneroit a, bon escient par dela, avec le temps recouvrer 
de lui une rame de papier ou environ, qui est ce que le galand a fait 
imprimer. Mais il me semble que pour cette heure vous etes garni 
d'assez bon gaige, et qu'il n'est ja mystere d'avoir plus pour se 
saisir de sa personne et lui faire son proces. Quand de ma part je 
prie Dieu qu'il lui plaise ouvrir les yeux a ceux qui discourent si mal, 
afin qu'ils apprennent de mieux juger du desir duquel nous sommes 
mus. Et pour ce qu'il semble bien par votre lettre que vous ne 
voulez plus entrer au propos que vous m'aviez tenu par cidevant, je 
m'en deporte aussi pour ne vous point facher, esperant neanmoins 
que Dieu en la fin vous fera bien sentir que je n'ai point pris a la 
volee le parti que je tiens. Me recommandant a votre bonne grace, 
priant Dieu vous tenir en la sienne. 

Be Geneve, ce 26 Mars. 



APPENDIX. 



549 



TRIE'S THIRD LETTER TO ARNEYS. 

Monsieur mon Cousin. 

J'espere que j'aurai en part satisfait a ce que me demandez 
vous envoyaut la main de celui qui a compose le livre, et meme en la 
derniere epistre que vous avez regu vous trouverez ce qu'il declare de 
son nom, lequel il avoit deguise ; car il s 'excuse de ce qu'il s'est fait 
nommer Villeneuve, combien que son nom soit Servetus alias Reves, 
disant qu'il a pris son nom de la ville dont il est natif. Au reste je 
vous tiendrai prornesse, au plaisir de Dieu, que si besoin fait je vous 
fournerai les traites lesquels il a fait imprimer, et ecrits de sa main 
aussi bien que les epitres. J' eusse deja mis peine de les retirer s'ils 
eussent ete en cette ville, mais ils sont a Lausanne il y a deux ans. 
Si M. Calvin les eut eu, je crois pour ce qu'ils valient qu'il les eut 
bientot renvoyes a Y auteur ; mais pour ce qu'il les avoit addresse 
aussi bien a d'autres, ceux la les ont retenu. Meme a ce que j'ai 
autrefois entendu, le dit sieur ayant suffisament repondu pour 
contenter un homme raisonnable, voyant que cela ne profitoit rien 
envers un tel ouvrage, ne daigna jamais lire le reste, pour ce qu'il 
etoit deja trop battu des sottes reveries et du babil que 1 'autre ne fait 
que reiterer, ayant toujours meme chanson. Et afin que vous entendiez 
que ce n'est pas d'aujourdhuy que cemalheureux s'efforce de troubler 
l'Eglise, tacbant de mener les ignorans en une meme confusion avec 
lui, il y a 24 (ans) passes qu'on l'a rejette et chasse des principales eglises 
d'Allemagne, et s'il se fat trouve au lieu jamais il n'en fut parti. 
Entre les epitres d'CEcolampade, la lere, et la 2de s'addressent a luy 
avec tel titre que lui appartient, Serveto Hispano neganti Christum 
esse Dei Filium, consubstantialem Patri. Melancthon en parle aussi 
en quelques passages. Mais me semble que vous avez la preuve 
assez aise'e, par ce que je vous ai deja, envoyepour enfoncer plus avant, 
voire pour commencer le tout. Quant a l'imprimeur je ne vous mande 
pas les indices par lesquels nous avons entendu que c 'etoit Baltbasar 
Arnoullet et Guillaume Grueroult, son beau frere ; mais tant y a que 
nous en sommes bien assure; et de fait il ne pourra pas le nier. II 



550 



APPENDIX. 



est bien possible que c'aura ete aux depens de l'auteur, et que lui aura 
retire les copies en sa main ; mais si trouverez vous que l'impression 
est sortie de la boutique que je vous nomme. Pour ce que le mes- 
sager demande etre depeche bientot, m 'ay ant toutes fois presente vos 
lettres bien tard, de peur comme je crois d'etre solicite a bien faire, je 
vous ai fait cette reponse en brief, parquoy je vous prie excuser la 
hativete. II me semble que j'avois omis de vous ecrire qu'apres que 
vous auriez fait des epitres, qu'il vous plut ne les egarer afin de les 
me renvoyer. Qui sera l'endroit ou je ferai fin a la presente, me 
recommandant toujours a votre bonne grace, etc. 
De Geneve, ce dernier Mars. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abraham Sacrifiant, Beza's poem of, 
246 

Adiaphoristic controversy, origin of the, 
236 

Adultery, how punished at Geneva, 152 
Agricola, John, 232 

Aix, Parliament of, its decree against the 

Waldenses, 194 
A'Lasco, John, repulsed by the Germans, 

403 ; his efforts for a union of the 

churches, 437 
Alciat, Andre, Calvin's tutor, 9 
Alciat, Gian Paolo, 450 
Alcuin, Calvin's pseudonym of, 101 
Aleander, 15 

Amboise, conspiracy of, 478 
Ameaux, Pierre, process against, 201 
Amsdorf, Bishop, 238 
Anabaptists, Calvin's disputation with, 66 
Antitrinitarians, their increase at Ge- 
neva, 446 

Apocalypse, Calvin's opinion of the, 102; 
declines to edit it, 306 

Arneys, Antoine, 310 

Arnoullet, 310, 315 

Artichokes, faction of, 113 

Astrology, Calvin's tract against, 230 

Augsburg, diet of (1555), 439 

Augustin, St., sketch of his life and doc- 
trines, 256, et seq. 



B. 

Bale, Bishop of Ossory, 420 

Baptism, how administered, 1 39 ; Popish, 
not inefficacious, 252 

Baudouin, Francis, 487 ; Calvin's con- 
troversy with, 511 

Bayle, his remark on Castellio's defence, 
445 

Beda, Natalis, 16, 28 
Bellay, Cardinal du, 219 



Bellius, Martinus, answers Calvin's Re- 
futation 366 

Bells, popish superstition respecting, 76 
note 

Berauld Francis, 467 

Bernard, Jaques, solicits Calvin's return 
to Geneva, 121 

Berne, clergy of, adopt the Zurich Con- 
sensus, 250 ; their tolerant spirit, 277; 
— council of, their letter to Farel and 
Calvin, 72 ; another letter, 82 ; inter- 
cede with the Genevese in favour 
of Calvin, 88 ; mediate in favour of 
Perrin, 221 ; reply to the council of 
Geneva, 382 ; refuse to decide on the 
doctrine of predestination, 386 ; — sy- 
nod of, acquits Calvin of Arianism, 7 1 

Bernese rites, ministers of Geneva op- 
posed to, 79 

Berquin, translates some pieces of 
Erasmus, 16 ; trial and martyrdom 
of, 17 

Berthelier, Philibert, excommunicated, 
144 ; absolved by the council, 370 ; 
excites the Genevese against Farel, 
373 ; flies from Geneva, 396 ; sen- 
tence on, 398 

Beza, not the author of the Hist, des Eg- 
lises He/., 26, note ; characterises Cal- 
vin as bishop of Geneva, 142 ; his insi- 
nuation against Castellio, 1 55 ; arrives 
at Geneva, 243 ; his youth and educa- 
tion, 244, et seq. ; edits Paul's Epis- 
tle to the Romans, 246 ; his charge 
against Bolsec, 282 ; accuses Castellio 
and Socinus of writing the Farrago, 
366 ; disobeys the Bernese govern- 
ment, 383 ; his hostility to Bolsec, 388; 
intercedes for the Waldenses, 412 ; 
his ambiguous confession, 413 ; pro- 
ceeds to Worms, 415 ; subscribes the 
Confession of Augsburg, ibid. ; origin 
of his enmity to Castellio, 445 ; en- 
deavours to procure Gentile's condem- 
nation, 457 ; demands his dismissal 
from the ministry at Lausanne, 463 ; 



552 



INDEX. 



made rector of the Genevese Academy, 
467 ; manages the conference atPoissy, 
488 ; his interview with Catherine de 
Medicis,489; detained in France, 494 ; 
preaches publicly at Paris, ibid. ; re- 
monstrates against the massacre of 
Vassy, 502 ; his danger, 503 ; con- 
vokes a synod at Orleans, 505 ; his 
conduct at the battle of Dreux, ibid. ; 
accused of inciting Poltrot, 507 ; re- 
turns to Geneva, 510 ; answers Bau- 
douin, 514 ; replies to Hesshus, 518 ; 
his lines to Calvin's memory, 528 ; his 
character of Calvin, 530 

Biandrata, George, 449 

Bocher, Joan, her case, and that of Ser- 
vetus compared, 333 

Bolsec, Jerome, his calumny respecting 
Calvin, 26, note ; arrives at Geneva, 

265 ; Calvin's account of his tenets, 

266 ; his violent harangue, 268 ; ap- 
prehended, 269 ; his verses, 274 ; ba- 
nished from Geneva, 279 ; banished 
from Berne, 388 ; appears at Orleans, 
505 

Bonnivard, prior of St. Victor, imprison- 
ment of, 42 ; his tolerant spirit, 60 ; 
endows the Genevese schools, 458 

Bossuet, his parallel of Luther and Cal- 
vin, 528 

Bourbon, Anthony, King of Navarre, 
475, 477 ; defrauded of the regency, 
483 ; his apostacy, 497, 499 

Bourbon, Cardinal, 473 ; made governor 
of Paris, 504 

Brantome, 18 

Brederode, Madame de, Bolsec's charge 
against Calvin respecting, 282 

Brentz, his attacks on Calvin, 406 ; frus- 
trates a union between the Lutheran 
and Reformed churches, 437 

Bretschneider, his remark on Calvin's 
doctrine of predestination, 34, note ; 
when first adopted by Calvin, 263 

Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux, protects 
the Reformers, 19 ; compelled to 
dismiss them, 20 

Brothers in Christ, faction so called, 78 

Browne, Sir Thomas, his remark on 
predestination, 260, note 

Brule-bancs, Montmorency so called, 504 

Bucer, his confession respecting the 
eucharist, 73; offers Calvin a ministry 
at Strasburgh, 91 ; his opinion of 
Calvin and Farel, ibid. ; his threat 
towards Calvin, 123 ; alarmed at the 
Interim, 233; refuses to subscribe it, 
234 ; his opinion on clerical robes, 
287 ; death of, 288 ; his judgment of 
Servetus, 299 



Bullinger intercedes with the Genevese 
in favour of Calvin, 87; writes against 
the Interim, 236 ; differs with Calvin 
on some points of doctrine, 250; his 
opinion on the case of Bolsec, 276 ; 
recommends the capital punishment 
of Servetus, 338 ; exhorts Calvin to 
write against him, 353; objects to the 
style of Calvin's book, 364 ; disapproves 
of Calvin's abuse of Westphal, 405 ; 
offended at Beza's and Farel's con- 
fession of faith, 414 ; charges Calvin 
with a breach of the Consensus, 417 

Bures, Idelette de, Calvin marries her, 
100 

c. 

Calvin, Anthony, 36, 328 

Calvin, John, his birth and parentage, 4 ; 
education, 6 ; obtains some prefer- 
ments, 7 ; his studies at Orleans, 8 ; 
consulted on Henry VIII. 's divorce, 
ibid. ; proceeds to Bourges, ibid. ; 
conversion to Protestantism, 9 ; loses 
his father and settles at Paris, 10 ; 
his exertions there as a Reformer, 24 ; 
assumes the name of Calvinus, ibid. ; 
composes a sermon for Cop, rector of 
the Sorbonne, 25 ; fliea from Paris, 
ibid.; sells his benefice, 26; meets Le 
Fevre d'Etaples at Nerac, 27; returns 
to Paris to meet Servetus, 28 ; his 
Psychopdnnychia, 29 ; second flight, 
32 ; studies Hebrew at Basle, 33 ; 
finishes his " Institutes," ibid. ; his 
preface to Olivetan's Bible, 34 ; visits 
Ferrara, 35 ; returns to France, 36 ; 
final departure from Noyon, ibid. ; 
arives at Geneva, 37 ; his first sermon 
there, 64; converts a barefooted friar, 
65 ; accused of Arianism, 68; invited 
to the synod of Lausanne, 81 ; rejects 
the decision of that body, 82 ; refuses 
to administer the sacrament, and is 
banished, 84 ; attends the synod of 
Zurich, 85 ; his treatment at Berne, 
87 ; proceeds to Basle, 90 ; accepts a 
ministry at Strasburgh, 93; his epistle 
to the Genevese church, 94 ; attends 
a diet at Frankfort, 95 ; meets 
Melancthon, 96; pecuniary difficulties, 
98 ; marries, 99 ; birth of a son, 101 ; 
Commentary on St. Paul, 102; answer 
to Sadolet, ibid. ; attends the diets of 
Hagenau and Worms, 105 ; his Epi- 
nicion, 106 ; attends the diet of 
Ratisbon, 107 ; his paper on the local 
presence, 110 ; leaves Ratisbon, 111 ; 
solicited to return to Geneva, 112 ; 



INDEX. 



553 



character of his successors there, 115; 
reluctance to return, 121 ; visits Neuf- 
chatel, 124; reception at Geneva, 125; 
salary, 126; character of his colleagues, 
128; his moderation, 129 ; establishes 
his discipline, 132 ; his ecclesiastical 
polity, 1 33 ; aristocratic views, 1 34 ; 
usurps the presidency of the con- 
sistory, 137 ; publishes his "Liturgy," 
140 ; notion of the priestly character, 
141; severity, 144; letter to the King 
of Poland, 148; code of civil law, 149; 
his oligarchical sentiments, 151 ; effects 
of his laws, 153 ; exempted from 
attending the Lazaretto, 156; answers 
Pighius, 159; tract on relics, 163; 
visits Strasburgh, 167 ; intercourse 
with Castellio, 168, et seq. ; tract de 
Reformandd Ecclesid, 1 74 ; Scholia on 
the Pope's letter, 175; tracts against 
the Anabaptists and Libertines, 177 ; 
answer to the Queen of Navarre, 179; 
advises Bullinger not to answer Luther, 
182 ; opinion of Luther, 184 ; letter 
to Luther, 185 ; consults him and 
Melancthon, 186 ; tracts against the 
Nicodcmites, ibid. ; compares himself 
to the Apostle, 189 ; his pecuniary 
necessities, 190 ; fear of the plague, 
192 ; intercedes for the Waldenses, 
197 ; severity towards Ameaux, 203 ; 
despotism, 204 ; priestcraft, 205; dis- 
putes with the Fabri family, 208 ; his 
life threatened, 213 ; desires Gruet's 
execution, 217 ; struggles with the 
Libertines, 218 ; quells a sedition, 
220 ; admonished by the council, 223; 
reprimanded, 226 ; translates Melanc- 
thon's Loci, 228 ; writes against the 
Council of Trent, 229 ; Commentaries 
on St. Paul, 230 ; tract against astro- 
logy, ibid. ; against the Interim^ 232 ; 
correspondence with Bucer, 234 ; 
censures Melancthon, 236 ; death of 
his wife, 241 ; arranges the Zurich 
Consensus, 246 ; his doctrine of the 
eucharist, 247 ; answer to L. Socinus, 
252 ; tract de Scandalis, 255 ; his 
doctrine of predestination, 259, et seq.; 
translation of Melancthon's Loci, 264; 
interrogation of Bolsec, 270, et seq. ; 
suspected of wishing to put him to 
death, 275 ; misunderstanding with 
Bullinger, 277 ; tract on predestina- 
tion, 283 ; letter to Somerset, ibid. ; 
dedicates his Commentary on Isaiah 
to Edward VI., 285 ; his opinion on 
Bishop Hooper's scruples, 288 ; de- 
clines Cranmer's invitation to England, 
291 ; view of the English church, 



292, et seq.; forwards evidence against 
Servetus to Vienne, 316 ; appears 
against him at Geneva, 330 ; visits him 
in his dungeon, 336 ; draws up a 
refutation of his doctrines, 337; pro- 
tests against the Swiss churches being 
consulted, 338 ; efforts to alleviate 
Servetus' punishment, 345 ; publishes 
his book against that heretic, 354 ; 
his defence examined, 355, et seq. ; 
opposes Berthelier's absolution, 370 ; 
libel upon him, 378 ; disputes with 
the ministers of the Pays de Vaud, 
380 ; visits Berne on that account, 
383 ; dissatisfied with the decision of 
the Bernese, 389: address to the Two 
Hundred in favour of the discipline, 
391; motives of his conduct towards 
the Libertines, 397 ; controversy with 
the Lutherans, 401, et seq. ; answers 
Westphal, 406 ; urges Melancthon to 
declare himself, 409 ; angry letter to 
Bullinger, 417 ; appealed to by the 
English exiles, 427 ; letter to Dr. Cox 
and his party, 431 ; visits Frankfort, 
437; publishes his tract on predesti- 
nation, 443 ; procures the banishment of 
Gribaldo, 447 ; his " Admonition to the 
Polish Brethren," 456 ; his numerous 
auditors, 459 ; his illness, 468 ; dedi- 
cates his Commentary on Isaiah to 
Queen Elizabeth, 469 ; his answer to 
Knox, 471 ; suspected of the conspi- 
racy of Amboise, 478 — 480 ; declines 
the ministry at Paris, 485 ; reproves 
the King of Navarre, 500; his prayers 
for Guise, 507 ; answers Baudouin, 
512 ; controversy with Hesshus, 516 ; 
last illness, 518 ; death, 527 ; his will, 
529 ; character, 530, et seq. 

Capito, Wolfgang, 33 ; his confession 
respecting the eucharist, 73 

Caroli, P., some account of, 66 ; charges 
Calvin with Arianism, 68 ; re-appears 
in Switzerland, 104 ; his machinations 
against Farel, 166 ; his death, 167 

Carraccioli, Marquis of Vico, Calvin's 
dedication to, 283 ; settles at Geneva, 
446 

Carlostadt rejects the doctrine of the 
real presence, 3 ; an enemy of learning, 
45 

Casaubon, 1 42 
Cassander, 512 

Cassan^, (or Chasane), his sentence on 

the Waldenses, 194 
Castalio, (see Castellio) 
Castellan, 13 

Castellio, Sebastian, offers to go to the 
Lazaretto, 154 ; some account of, 168; 



554 



INDEX. 



his quarrel with Calvin, 169 ; his 
version of the New Testament, 170 ; 
demands a public disputation with 
Calvin, ibid. ; insults the Genevese 
ministers, 17*2 ; his banishment, ibid ; 
suspected of libelling Calvin, 378 ; 
accused of reviving the predestinarian 
controversy, 440 ; charged with theft 
by Calvin, 444 

Castelnau, Baron de, 479 

Catherine de Medicis persecutes the 
Calvinists, 477 ; her artful policy, 
483, 493 ; methods of seduction em- 
ployed by, 498 ; her interview with 
Conde, 505 

Cecil, Secretary, Calvin's letter to, 
469 

Celsus, Minus, his judgment in the case 
of Servetus, 343 ; quotation from the 
first 'edition of the " Institutes," 357 ; 
character of his Disputatio, 367 ; his 
account of Gentile's execution, 457, 
note 

Cental, Countess of, 195 

Chambers, Richard, 425 

Chambre ardente, 474 

Chancery of God, society at Magdeburg, 

so called, 238 
Charles V., Emperor, his exhortation to 

the disputants at Ratisbon, 109 ; Bu- 

cer's character of, 173 ; persecutes the 

Belgians, 174 
Charles IX., accession of, 483 
Chatillon, Cardinal, 473 
Chauvin, Charles (Calvin's brother), dies, 

36 

Chemin, Nicholas du, 8 
Chevalier, Anthony, 467 
Chiavenna, heterodoxy there, 251 
Chillon taken by the Bernese, 42 
Church, the, Calvin's theory of, 133, 
et seq. 

Churches, Swiss, consulted respecting 
Bolsec, 272 ; answers of, in the case 
of Servetus, 342 ; consulted respecting 
excommunication, 374 

Clement VII., Pope, publishes a jubilee, 
42 

Cochloeus, answers Calvin's Antidoton, 
230 

Coligny, Admiral, 475 ; summoned to 
defend the king, 479 ; presents a peti- 
tion from Normandy, 481 ; proposes 
Anthony as Regent, 487 ; accused of 
instigating Guise's assassination, 507 

Colladon, his code of laws, 149 ; his 
unreasonable severity, 193 

Conde, Prince of, 475 ; made command- 
ant of Amboise, 479 ; his plot, 482 ; 
apprehended and condemned, but es- 



capes, 483 ; profligacy of, 498 ; 
occupies Orleans, 504 
Congregation, Calvinistic, surprised at 

Paris, 414 
Consistory, Genevese, how constituted, 

137 ; method of proceeding in, 146 
Constance resists the Interim, 232 
Contarini, Cardinal, 102, 107 
Conz, (or Kuntzen), his character, 81 
Cop, Nicholas, rector of the Sorbonne, de- 
nounced, 25 ; — Michael, his over- zeal, 
204 

Copa, Madame, sentence upon, 144 
Corderius, Calvin's tutor, 6 ; appointed 
Regent of the schools at Geneva, 168 
Corne', syndic, 210 

Council, Genevese, how elected, 61 ; 
power of, 62 ; Calvin's last interview 
with, 521 ; testimony to Calvin's cha- 
racter, 528 

Courault brought to Geneva by Calvin, 
64 ; offensive sermon of, 83 ; banished, 
84 ; dies, 85 

Cox, Dr. Richard, arrives at Frankfort, 
429 ; procures Knox's banishment 
there, 430 ; answers Calvin's remon- 
strances, 431 

Crakanthorpe, his assertion respecting 
Pighius, 160 

Cranmer, Calvin's correspondence with, 
283 ; projects of union, 288 ; progress 
of his opinions, 289 ; rejects Luthe- 
ranism, 290 ; invites the assistance of 
Calvin, 291 ; his situation misunder- 
stood by Calvin, 294 j his reform, 
whether final, 421 

Cruciger, Caspar, 106 



D. 

D'Albret, Henry, 20 

Daniel, Francois, 8 

D'Andelot, 475 ; imprisoned, 476 

D'Artigny, Abbe, his assertion respect- 
ing Trie's letter, 314 ; character of 
Calvin's style, 538 

Davila, his character of Calvin, 537 

Deacons, their office, 139 

De Huy, Gaspar, 164 

De la Barre, Geoffroy, 478 

De la Beaume, Peter, bishop of Geneva, 
his character, 41 ; re-enters Geneva, 
54 

De la Forge, Stephen, patronises Calvin, 
24 

De Mouchy (or Demochares), 478 
Des Gallars, 470 
De Soubise, Madame, 35 
Despense, Claude, 492 



INDEX. 



555 



D'Etaples, Le Fevre, banished, 27 ; his 
opinion of Calvin, ibid. ; Farel's tutor, 
44 

De Thou, president, 476 ; his character 

of Calvin, 5 37 
Dress, Bernese, an emblem of sedition, 

215 

Du Bourg, Anne, execution of, 478 
Du Tillet, Louis, receives Calvin at 

Claix, 27 ; accompanies him to Basle, 

32 

E. 

Eck, Dr., character of, 108 ; struck 
with illness, 111; Calvin's account of 
his convalescence, ibid. 

Eidgenossen, faction so called, 40 

Elders, mode of electing, 137; domi- 
ciliary visits of, 254 

Episcopacy, approved of by Calvin in 
large states, 148 

Epistolce obscurorwn Virorum, the, 22 

Erasmus suspects the Papists of poison- 
ing, 15 ; joins the Reuchlinists, 22 ; 
his character as a Reformer, ibid. ; 
his popularity in France, 23 ; Calvin's 
alleged interview with, 33 ; Farel's 
visit to, 45 ; his opinion on the study 
of Hebrew, 150 ; approved of Bucer's 
candour, 233. 

Eucharist, Calvin's doctrine of the, 
247, 401 

Excommunication, 65 ; right of, when 
obtained by Calvin, 148, 392 



F. 

Fallais, Mons. de, patronises Bolsec, 
273 ; his connection with Calvin, 280 

Farel, William, regent of the College of 
Card, le Moine, 19 ; suspected of 
writing the Placards, 29 ; detains 
Calvin at Geneva, 37 ; some account of, 
43, et seq. ; publishes thirteen Theses 
at Basle, 44 ; quarrels with Erasmus, 
45 ; expelled from Basle, 46 ; preaches 
in Switzerland, 47 ; arrival at Geneva, 
48 ; flies to Orbe, 51 ; his address to the 
Two Hundred, 58 ; his intolerance, 
59 ; banished, 84 ; accepts the ministry 
at NeufcMtel, 91 ; invited back to 
Geneva, 117 ; quarrels witWiis flock, 
124 ; visits Geneva, 131 ; preaches 
at Metz, 164 ; retires to Gorze, 165 ; 
visits Geneva, 167 ; pleads Calvin's 
cause with the council, 225, et seq. ; 
opinion on Calvin's Antidote, 230 ; 
urges a union with Zurich, 247 ; his 



violence towards Servetus, 339 ; ac- 
companies him to the stake, 347 ; 
accused of insulting the Genevese, 
373 ; acquitted, 374 ; exhorts Calvin 
to moderation, 406 ; efforts for the 
Waldenses, 412 ; ambiguous confes- 
sion, 413 ; allows the Confession of 
Augsburg, 415 ; letter to the minis- 
ters of Lausanne, 464 ; marriage, 467 ; 
visits Calvin in his last illness, 526 ; 
his death, ibid. 

Ferrara, Calvin's visit to, 35 

Ferrara, Rene'e, Duches of, 35 ; Calvin's 
letter to, regarding oaths, 361 

Fetes, abolishment of, at Geneva, 252 

Flaccius, his attacks on Melancthon, 
237 

Fontainebleau, assembly of Notables at, 
481 

Fontaine, Nicholas de la, prosecutes 

Servetus, 328 
Foussalet, 381 

Fox, John, the martyrologist, 419 
France, state of religion in, 10, 473 
Francis I., how disposed towards the 
Reformation, 12 ; incensed by the 
Placards, 29 ; directs a lustration of 
Paris, 30 ; unites Melancthon to 
France, 32 ; dethrones the Duke of 
Savoy, 41 ; requires the Waldenses to 
recant, 195 
Francis II., accession of, 477 ; death, 
483 

Frankfort, diet of, 95 

Frellon, Calvin's letter to, 307 

Friburgh renounces the Genevese alli- 
ance, 40, 56 

Froment, Ant., endeavours to reform 
Geneva, 51 

Froschover offends Luther, 181 

Furbity, Guy, preaches at Geneva, 55 

Furstenburg, Count, protects Farel, 165 

\ 

G. 

Gallus, Nicholas, 238 

Genesius, Peter, 456 

Geneva, Calvin's arrival at, 37 ; some 
account of, 39 ; progress of the Re- 
formation at, 41 ; first Protestant 
sermon at, 56 ; convents of, demolished, 
57; abolition of popery at, 58 ; consti- 
tution of, 60,et seq. ; holidays abolished 
at, 78 ; state of, during Calvin's banish- 
ment, 113 ; advantageous position of, 
132; plague at, 154, 191 ; state of, 
377, note; gymnasium at, founded, 458 

Genevese, the, conclude a treaty with 
Berne and Friburgh, 40 ; averse to 



556 



INDEX. 



Calvin's discipline, 74 ; sworn to its 
observance, 75 ; manners of the, ibid. ; 
adopt the rites of Berne, 83 ; their 
circular letter to Zurich, &c, 118 ; 
endeavour to renew the Bernese alli- 
ance, 390 

Gentile, Gio. Valenti, some account of, 

451 ; sentence on, 453 
Gentillwmmes de la Cuillere, league so 

called, 42 

George, David, endeavours to save 
Servetus, 352 

Gerson, 10 

Glauburg, John, 422 

Government, influence of, on religion, 1 1 

Granvelle, Cardinal, 105 

Gribaldo intercedes for Servetus, 352 ; 
account of, 446, et seq. 

Grindal, Edmund, 425 

Gropper, character of, 108 

Gruet, Jaques, apprehended, 214 ; tor- 
tured and beheaded, 215 ; his blas- 
phemies, 216 

Grynseus, Simon, 33, 73 ; receives 
Calvin at Basle, 90 ; his letter to 
Calvin, 91 

Guerin, execution of, 197 

Gueroult, Guillaume, 310 ; apprehended, 
315 

Guise, duke of, orders a massacre at 
Gorze, 166 ; usurps the government, 
477 ; baffles the conspiracy of Am- 
boise, 479 ; his conduct at Vassy, 501 ; 
enters Paris, 503 ; assassinated, 506 

Gymnasium, Genevese, account of, 458 



H. 

Haddon, Dr., 427 

Hagenau, diet of, 105 

Haller, Berthold, 40 

Haller, I., his opinion on "the Swiss 

letters respecting Servetus, 343 ; on 

the conduct of the ministers of the 

Pays de Vaud, 383 
Harlai, President, 476 
Harvey, his theory of the circulation 

anticipated by Servetus, 303 
Helding, Michael, 232 
Helvetic Confession, Calvin required to 

subscribe it, 71 ; misquoted by Dr. 

Henry, 343, note. 
Henry II. accedes to the French throne, 

473 ; death of, 477 
Henry, Dr. Paul, his opinion on Trie's 

letters, 313 ; his view of Servetus' 

execution, 358 
Heptameron, the, 18. 
Hesshus, Calvin's controversy with, 516 



Hobbes, his opinion on the cause of sin, 

263 

Hochstraten, his efforts against Reuchlin, 
22, note. 

Hooper, Dr., his scruples respecting the 

robes, 286 
Hotoman, his letter to Bullinger, 367 
Hugonots, Calvinists when first called 

480 

I and J. 

January, edict of, 496 

Jehovah, Calvin's use of that name 

objected to, 70, et seq. 
Tmpostoribus, de tribus, book entitled, 216 
Inquisition, establishment of the, in 

France, 473 
Institutes, first edition of the, 33 ; second 

edition, 101 ; alterations in, 357 
Interim, the, Calvin's tract against, 232 ; 

description of, 233 ; works against, 

235 ; the Leipsig, 236 
Joachim II., his share in the Interim, 

232 

Judex, Matthew, 238 

Julius II., Pope, assembles the Laterau 

council, 10 
July, edict of, 487 

Jussie, Sceur de, her flight from 
Geneva, 57 



K. 

Knox, John, 419 ; elected minister at 
Frankfort, 427 ; banished thence, 
430 ; quits Geneva, 470 ; his letter 
to Calvin, 471. 



L. 

La Baraudiere, Mademoiselle, 498 
Lainez, 492 

Lange, 381 ; accuses Calvin of heresy, 
387 

Lateran, council of, 10 

Lausanne, disputation of, 64 ; synod of, 

69 ; another, 81 
Lawrence, Dr., " Bampton Lecture," 34, 

note. 

Le Clerc, Jean, martyrdom of, 16 
Le Coq attempts to convert Francis L, 
21 

Le Pvoux, Gerard,' 31 ; assassinated, 32 ; 

Calvin's tract against, 1 82 
Lever, Thomas, 427 

Libertines, or Patriots, rise of the, 198 ; 
strengthened by the affair of Servetus, 



INDEX. 



557 



368 ; feigned reconciliation with Calvin, 

377 ; their violence, 390, et seq. ; dis- 
comfiture, 395 
Libertines, Spiritual, tenets of the, 177 ; 

Calvin's tract against, 178 
Locke, his opinion on providence and 

freewill, 260, note 
Loci) Melancthon's, remarkable passage 

in Calvin's preface to, 264 
L'Hopital, Chancellor, his advice to 

Catherine de Medicis, 483 ; frames 

the edict of January, 496 
Lorraine, Cardinal of, 473, 477 ; his 

cowardice, 479 
Louis XII. cites Pope Julius to Tours, 

10 

Luther, a cautious innovator, 2 ; appeals 
to the Sorbonne, 13 ; his opinion of 
Erasmus, 23 ; his esteem for learn- 
ing, 45 ; suspects the counter- Re- 
formers, 107 ; his noble enthusiasm, 
143 ; his dislike of the Zwinglians, 
181 ; his sentiments on the reply of 
the Zurich clergy, 185 

Lutherans, all Protestants so called, 17 



M. 



Maigret, 202 

Maigret, le Magnifique, 221 

Malot, 494 

Mamelukes, faction so called, 40 
Mar, de la, 202 
Marlorat, 463 

Marian exiles, account of, 418, et seq. 

Marot, Clement, 18 ; flies from Paris, 
32 ; secretary to the Duchess of 
Ferrara, 35 ; his version of the Psalms, 
475 

Martyr, Peter, his opinion on the clerical 
habits, 287 ; vindicates the execution of 
Servetus, 359 ; attends the conference 
of Poissy, 492 

Megander, 81 

Melancthon, invited to Paris by Francis 
L, 32 ; his scholarship, 45 ; senti- 
ments on the eucharist, 96 ; invited 
to England, 97 ; at Worms, 105 ; 
opinion of Eck, 109; his hypochon- 
driachism, 143 ; sentiments on Free 
Will, 161, et seq. ; laments Luther's 
violence, 182 ; his Loci translated by 
Calvin, 228 ; conduct regarding the 
Interim, 236, et seq. ; agrees with 
the Zurich Consensus, 250 ; rejects 
Calvin's doctrine of reprobation, 251 ; 
agrees with Stadianus, 261 ; invited 
to England, 289 ; approves of the 
execution of Servetus, 359 ; rejects 



the real presence, 409 ; receives Farel 
and Beza at Worms, 515 ; recom- 
mends toleration, 439 ; death, 515 
Merlin, 463 

Metz, state of religion at, 164 
Meynier, Baron d'Oppede, 196 
Ministers, Genevese, method of electing, 

138; demand for, 484 
Miroir de V Ame pecheresse, 18 
Mommor, family of, patronise Calvin, 6 
Montmorency, Constable, 482 ; joins the 

Triumvirate, 486 
Montchenu, 80 

Moses, legislation of, compared with 

Calvin's, 150. 
Mosheim, 357 



N. 



Navarre, Queen of, (see Valois) 
Nemesius, 304 
Nicodemites, the, 187 
Norman die, Laurent de, 255 
Normandy, progress of the Reformation 
in, 481 

Noyon, Calvin's birthplace, 4 ; thanks- 
giving at, for his death, 255, 437 



O. 



Ochino, Bernardin, 349, 446 

CEcolampadius, his advice to Farel, 46 ; 
to the Waldenses, 194 ; correspon- 
dence with Servetus, 298 ; opinion 
on Servetus's book, 300 

Olivetan, Pierre Robert, exhorts Calvin 
to study the Scriptures, 8 ; flies from 
Paris, 32 

Oporinus, 90,419 

Oratory of Divine Love, the, 107 

Orleans, synod of, 505 ; peace of, 509 

Ory, Matthias, 314 ; his subtlety, 322 



P. 



Pagninus, Xaintes, 306 

Palmier, P., Archbishop of Vienne, pa- 
tronises Servetus, 305 

Papists, the, constitute the remains of 
a church, 252 

Paris, state of learning in the University 
of, 12 ; first Protestant church in, 
474 ; persecutions at, 477 

Parkhurst, Bishop, 420 

Parthenai, Jean de, 35 

Pasquier, remark of, on Calvin's style, 
538 

Passive obedience, Calvin's theory of, 
134 



558 



INDEX. 



Paul III., Pope, remonstrates with the 
Emperor, 175 

Pays de Vaud, overrun by the Bernese, 
41 ; divided into classes, 65 ; dissen- 
sions in the, 459 

Pelagius, his opinions, 258 ; anathema- 
tised, ibid. 

Pellicanus, on transubstantiation, 3, note 

Perriu, Ami, promotes the Reformation 
at Geneva, 48 ; invites Calvin back, 
118 ; head of the Patriot party, 199 ; 
Calvin's letter to, 211 ; imprisoned, 
212 ; disgraced, 221 ; restored, 226 ; 
elected first syndic, 227 ; endeavours 
to save Servetus, 344 ; opposes the 
citizenship of the refugees, 393 ; flies 
from Geneva, 395 ; sentence upon, 
396 

Person, Calvin's use of that term, 70, 73 
Pflug, Julius, character of, 108 ; assists 

in framing the Interim, 232 
Philippe, Jean, execution of, 1 16 
Pighius, Albert, account of, 158 ; an- 
swered by Calvin, 159 
Placards, the, 29 

Plague, conspiracy to spread the, 191 
Planck, his account of Calvin's doctrine 

of the eucharist, 248 
Pocques, 179 
Poitiers, Diane de, 473 
Poissy, conference of, 488, et seq. 
Poland, toleration in, 455 
Pollan, Valerandus, 437 
Poltrot, 506 

Poupin (or Pepin), Abel, 213, 309 
Pre aux Clercs, meetings in the, 476 
Predestination, that doctrine adopted by 

St. Augustin, 257 ; Calvin's theory of, 

259 ; first adoption of, 263 
Presbyterianism, Calvin the founder of, 

140 

Prostitution, sanctioned at Geneva, 77 
Psalm-singing, its vogue in France, 475 
Pseudonyms, Calvin's, 35 
Psychopannychia, Calvin's tract on, 29 
Puritans, predilection of, for the Old 
Testament, 150 



Q. 

Quercu, 16 

Q,uintana,297 ; procures an edict to sup- 
press Servetus's book, 299 

Qnintin, a leader of the Spiritual Liber- 
tines, 179 

Pv, 

Rabelais, his dedication to M. de Valois, 
1 9 ; stigmatised by Calvin, 255 



Radzivill, Prince, 455 
Ramus, P., 497 

Ratisbon, diet of, 107 ; results of the, 
112 

Reformation, effect of the, 142 
Refugees, number and situation of the, 
at Geneva, 199, et seq. ; forbidden to 
carry arms, 368 ; disturbances re- 
specting their admission to citizenship, 
393 

Re'mond, Florimond de, his character of 

Calvin, 557 
Renee, Duchess of Ferrara, 35 
Reuchlin, 21 

Reuchlinists join Luther, 22 
Revenues, ecclesiastical, Calvin's opinion 
on, 1 36 

Richardet, Claude, death of, 117 
Ridley, Bishop, disapproves of Knox's 

conduct at Frankfort, 434 
Romorantin, edict of, 481 
Rous, Conrad, 299 

Ruchat, his remarks on excommunica- 
tion, 465 



S. 

Saconay, Gabriel de, Calvin's tract 

against, 514 
Sacramentaries, 3 

Sadolet, Cardinal, his epistle to the 
Genevese, 102 ; protects the Walden- 
ses, 197 

Sage, Jaques, arrest of, 482 

St. Andre, Marshal, 486 

St. Eloi, Abbot of, 7 

St. Germains, conference at, 495 

St. Me'dard, riot in the church of, 
495 

Saunier, Antoine, 48 
Savoy, house of, its attempts on Geneva, 
39 

Saxony, Elector of, condemns the Sacra- 
mentaries, 515 

Scaliger, Jos., his remark on Calvin, 34, 
note 

Schaling, Calvin's letter to, 407 

Secerius, John, 299 

Seguier, President, 476 

Servetus challenges Calvin to a dispu- 
tation, 28 ; sketch of his life, 296, 
et seq. ; correspondence with Calvin, 
307 ; publishes his Restitutio Christi- 
anismi, 310 ; his apprehension and 
trial at Vienne, 314, et seq. ; escapes 
from prison, 324 ; sentence on him, 
325 ; arrives at Geneva, 327 ; his 
arrest and trial, 328, et seq. ; his 
pantheistic principles, 331 ; hard- 



INDEX. 



559 



ship of his imprisonment, 332 ; denied 
the benefit of counsel, 334 ; his inso- 
lence towards Calvin, 337 ; different 
opinions on his case, 343 ; last inter- 
view with Calvin, 345 ; sentence, 346; 
execution, 347, et seq. ; character, 349 

Si cuius. Georgius, 263 

Sigmond, Dr., his character of Servetus, 
350 

Simon, Father, his opinion of Calvin's 

writings, 538 
Simon Magus, 335, 337 
Sleidan, his account of the Sorbonne, 1 4 ; 

Calvin's letter to, respecting Melanc- 

thon,410 
Smalcaldic league, 232 
Socinus, Lselius, consults Calvin, 251 ; 

his attempts in Poland, 455 
Socinians, origin and character of the, 

251 

Somerset, Protector, Calvin's letter to, 
283 

Sorbonne, account of the, 12, et seq. ; 

Calvin's answer to the, 157 
Spires, diet of, 173 

Stadianus, F., on providence and contin- 
gency, 261 

Stella, Petrus (or P. de l'Etoile), 7 

Strasburgh, state of the church at, 93 ; 
rejects the Interim, 232 

Sturmius, 302 

Sulzer, Calvin's letter to, respecting Ser- 
vetus, 340 
Supralapsarian doctrine, Calvin's, 262 
Syndics, office of the, 60 



T. 

Tagaut, John, 467 

Terence, metres of, first arranged by Me- 

lancthon, 45 
Tournon, Cardinal, persecutes the Wal- 

denses, 196 ; archbishop of Lyons, 

314 ; manager of the conference at 

Poissy, 491 
Traheron, Bartholomew, 290 
Trechsel, Melchior and Caspar, 302 
Trent, Council of, Calvin's work against, 

229 

Trie, Guillaume, his letters to Arneys, 
310 

Trinity, Calvin's use of that name, 70, 73 
Tritheisls, Trinitarians so called by Ser- 
vetus, 351 
Triumvirate, origin of the, 487 
Troillet, his revenge against Calvin, 224 
Troubles at Frankfort, character of that 

tract, 422 
Turrettin, 356 



V. 

Vadianus, or Wat, 289 

Valla, Laurentius, the reputed author of 
predestination, 269 

Valois, Margue'rite de, character of, 
17, et seq.; encourages the Reformed 
preachers, 28 ; saves the life of Gerard 
le Roux, 31 ; protects the Spiritual 
Libertines, 179 

Vandel procures Calvin's condemnation, 
89 ; opposes the admission of the 
refugees to citizenship, 393 ; flies 
from Geneva, 397 

Vassy, massacre of, 501 

Vaticanus, an answer to Calvin's Refu- 
tatio, 366 

Vau, M. de, defames Calvin, 141 

Vienne, archbishop of, metropolitan of 
Geneva, 41 

Viret, Calvin lodges at the house of, 37 ; 
nearly poisoned, 63 ; becomes minister 
at Lausanne, ibid. ; returns for a 
while to Geneva, 118; intercedes for 
the Waldenses at Paris, 198 ; Calvin's 
letter to, intercepted, 223 ; assists 
Calvin against the council, 225 ; re- 
tains Servetus' MS., 309 ; his factious 
conduct towards Berne, 383, 460 ; 
threatens to resign, 461 ; dismissed, 
463 ; retires to Geneva, 467 

Vives, his letter to Erasmus, 12 



W. 

Waldenses, persecution of the, 193 ; con- 
sult GCcolampadius, 194 ; massacre of 
the, 196 ; flight, 197 

Welsius, Justus, 438 

Wernly, Peter, canon of St. Peter's, 
wounded, 43 ; killed, 53 

Wesel, refugees at, persecuted, 439 

Westphal, Joachim, attacks the Zurich 
Consensus, 402 ; persecutes A'Lasco 
and his brother fugitives, 403 j an- 
swers Calvin, 405 

Whittingham, William, author of the 
Troubles at Frankfort, 421 ; his cir- 
cular, 423 ; returns to England, 
439 

Wier, (or Wierus) John, 302 

Witenbogaert, 142 

Wittenberg, Concordat of, 402 

Wolmar, Melchior, Calvin's tutor, in- 
clines him towards Protestantism, 
9 

Worms, diet of, 105. 



560 



IXDEX. 



X. 

Xaixtes, de, 49 

Z. 

Zanchi defends the execution of Serve- 

tus, 367 
Zebede'e, 381 

Zurich, clergy of, persuade Calvin to 
return to Geneva, 120 ; their answer 
to Luther, 184 



Zurich, synod of, 85 ; Concordat of, 

246 , mildness of the laws at, 376 
Zurkinden (Zerkinta) disapproves of 

Calvin's book against Servetus. 364 ; 

espouses the cause of Biandrata, 

451 

Zwingli, his character as a Reformer, 2 ; 
his doctrine of necessity, 276 : averse 
to persecution, 2S8 ; his view of 
the sacraments rejected bv Calvin, 
386. 



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